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avon_grey posted:Hi, fellow fish goons! I drove my fish 1700 miles in 2 days from California to the Midwest in August a couple of years ago taking the southern route through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. What I did was not feed the fish for several days before the trip. Right before I left I bagged her in a large fish store bag with quite a bit of water. I wrapped the bag in duct tape, the first two times I tried this she poked holes in the bag, then I wrapped the duct taped bag in brown shipping paper. I put her in a styrofoam cooler lined with packing paper and then stuffed it all around her and taped the cooler shut. 2 days later I arrived and was nervous as hell opening that bag but low and behold she was alive and just fine!
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Sep 23, 2013 02:38
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Thank you all for the information- it's been very helpful. The not feeding them thing I was already going to do- I've had to not feed mine for extended periods anyways cause they're little fatties and they've been fine. I'll definitely look into the aeration stones so they're not too stressed out while we're stopped at a hotel overnight. I'll also be sure to do the water change suggested when we stop. And, of course, no leaving them in the car unattended because cold. Don't wanna hurt my babies. Not sure if I'll have the room for four 5-gallon containers, but thinking on it the bigger, the better is the best when it comes to water quality. I'll check it out closer to the time of moving and see how much room I'll have in my car for containers and how tightly packed I can put them in there so they don't get jostled too much.
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Sep 23, 2013 05:06
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5 gallon buckets from lowes or something will probably be cheaper than tupperware too (unless you already have some). They have the added benefit of being basically watertight, if you get the ones meant to hold paint and the like.
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Sep 23, 2013 06:33
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Is prolly just me, but if theyre just bettas, I'd bag them up (separately of course) in a large fish bag with air, pack em together into a box/bucket so they wont slosh as much and call it a day. Assuming the temps arent insane, theyd be absolutely fine. No bubbles needed. They get mailed all the time in like, 1oz of water close to no oxygen or something and have a 95% survival rate. Can't ever be too careful but the idea of 4 different 5 gallon buckets with battery powered air pumps sounds over the top to me. If no fishbags, those gallon ziploc bags, doublebagged and tape down the corners.
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Sep 23, 2013 11:07
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Oh, if you have five gallon buckets throw a stick in that goes all the way to the top, it helps cut down majorly on the sloshing.
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Sep 23, 2013 13:15
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Use Kordon breather bags if you are considering that route. Bettas breathe air, being sealed up in a plastic container is not a good idea. Kordon bags are what nearly every reputable person selling fish online will use now since you can load the bag to the top with water. If you have questions go to The Planted Tank forum and ask in there, someone will be happy to offer more advice on shipping fish which will more or less cover your needs.
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Sep 23, 2013 13:45
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So I am throwing around some ideas to stock my 75 gallon. For filtration I have an xp3 and an ac70. Id like to hear what you guys would do. I am open to just about anything other than angels and goldfish, This is what I thought up last night South American Tank 4 Festivum 3 Pictus Cats 10 Cory Cats 10 Marbled Hatchets 10 Lemon Tetras 7 Zebra Loaches African Tank 2 Delhezi Bichir 3 Leopard Ctenopoma 10 Congo Tetras 1 Brown Knife Some kind of larger midwater fish Whale Cancer fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Sep 28, 2013 |
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Sep 23, 2013 14:09
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I finally got a proper tank rather than the stack and store my fish have been slumming it in for the past few weeks so it's time to post some photos.  This is my 55 litre, wintertime home to my They have been in my pond over the summer but I wasn't sure how well they'd handle the cold so I brought them in to be on the safe side. There are still four stragglers in the pond that I have no chance of catching unless I pull out all the plants and gently caress that noise, so they're my guinea pigs. Question: does anyone know what the plant that looks like carrot leaves is? I bought a random mix of plants for cheap and they weren't labelled. I now have a terrible urge to get some cories because the bottom is a bit empty. 
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Sep 23, 2013 15:04
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My ghost shrimp had babies! Unfortunately, she had them a day before I was going to clean the tank, and she had the directly under the filter. At least three survived, they're so hard to see and they hide in the plants. I turned the filter off so I wouldn't loose any more of them and I was able to vacuum out the gravel using a pump with pantyhose stretched over the opening today. All the moldy uneaten food was liquified and sucked up and the little babies were unharmed.  It was pretty funny watching the adults go on an all out feeding frenzy when I stirred up all the algae, food particles, and plant bits.  I took this pic a few days ago, before she had her babies. People don't understand why I have pet shrimp until they see them, then they're like "Lookit his lil feelers... HAHA He's swimming, LOOK IT'S SO CUTE, LOOK!"
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Sep 23, 2013 21:35
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demonR6 posted:Use Kordon breather bags if you are considering that route. Bettas breathe air, being sealed up in a plastic container is not a good idea. Kordon bags are what nearly every reputable person selling fish online will use now since you can load the bag to the top with water. If you have questions go to The Planted Tank forum and ask in there, someone will be happy to offer more advice on shipping fish which will more or less cover your needs. You don't use Kordon Breathers with some fish, like cories, bichirs, bettas. Anything that needs to get to the surface for a breath. Breather bags are sealed entirely and filled to the brim with water, no breathing space. I would personally just not feed the fish for a few days ahead of time, bag them in Petsmart or Petco bags (they usually give you a few if you ask) and put the fish in a cooler or styrofoam box. Shipping is one thing, but moving for 2 days is pretty easy with simple labryinth breathers. Heck, I know a betta breeder who packs her fish in small water bottles and ships them that way.
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Sep 23, 2013 23:33
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Cowslips Warren posted:You don't use Kordon Breathers with some fish, like cories, bichirs, bettas. Anything that needs to get to the surface for a breath. Breather bags are sealed entirely and filled to the brim with water, no breathing space. Really because my bettas have been shipped to me in Kordon bags? Go figure. Glad they arrived alive and thanks for the heads up.
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Sep 23, 2013 23:42
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demonR6 posted:Really because my bettas have been shipped to me in Kordon bags? Go figure. Glad they arrived alive and thanks for the heads up. No idea. The betta breeders I know won't use Kordon for shipping bettas. Now technically speaking, I guess you could use breather bags as long as you kept part of them filled with oxygen, but that defeats the purpose of a breather bag. Then again I once got some plecos shipped to me with pieces of kitchen scrubber pads floating in the bag. When I asked the shipper about it, he said that was to prevent a cycle of bacteria. Trying to explain that plecos could get stuck in the loving things and die from stress did not go well.
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Sep 23, 2013 23:53
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Cycling a shipping bag? 
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Sep 23, 2013 23:57
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Cowslips Warren posted:No idea. The betta breeders I know won't use Kordon for shipping bettas. Luckily I have a really good local contact now for my bettas and everything else my LFS has in stock.
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Sep 24, 2013 00:05
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Cowslips Warren posted:You don't use Kordon Breathers with some fish, like cories, bichirs, bettas. Anything that needs to get to the surface for a breath. Breather bags are sealed entirely and filled to the brim with water, no breathing space. This is really more in keeping with what I was thinking of doing. Keeping them in the cooler is easier to transport/take with us into the hotel without getting a lot of weird looks/take into eateries with us so we don't have to leave them in the car. Basically the first thing I would do when I get to the new place is set up their tanks and make sure to start floating them while we move stuff in. Thank you for the reassurance that my line of thinking wasn't completely off or insane.
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Sep 24, 2013 03:45
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My pothos have gone nuts. Well, one has, the other has shown acceptable growth I guess. They both started off as small 2 leaf cuttings that I put in the tanks.  The big one's roots are sitting directly in the filter flow. The smaller's roots are off in a quiet part of the tank. They've both gone crazy sprouting roots though the flow's definitely made a gigantic difference for one of them. Twice as many leaves that are nearly double the size is nuts though. Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 09:49 on Sep 26, 2013 |
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Sep 26, 2013 09:47
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I seem to have the beginnings of a hydra infestation in my tank. After reading up on ways to control them I've ordered some red ramshorn snails and cut back on feeding a bit. I'll probably end up going full on "old lady who swallowed a fly" and adding something else to control the ramshorns once they inevitably go crazy... Any hydra advice? They're not really a threat to my white mountain minnows but I'd quite like to breed them and now I know why all the fry have been disappearing.  At least I know my water parameters are ok as apparently they like really good water conditions. 
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Sep 26, 2013 10:14
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Well, there's a variety of treatments for hydras, but they will pretty much also wipe out other invertebrates if you have them too. Fenbendazole, a pet dewormer has also been used to treat infestations of small inverts like hydras. Otherwise just cut down on feeding, like pretty much every pest problem.
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Sep 26, 2013 10:37
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SynthOrange posted:Well, there's a variety of treatments for hydras, but they will pretty much also wipe out other invertebrates if you have them too. Fenbendazole, a pet dewormer has also been used to treat infestations of small inverts like hydras. Otherwise just cut down on feeding, like pretty much every pest problem. Yeah, chemical solutions are a last resort as I'm kind of a hippie, as long as I can keep their population low I don't mind them too much. They're really cool little creatures, it's almost like having tiny sea anemones in my tank. 
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Sep 26, 2013 10:42
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Started restocking today. Picked up 6 congo tetras, 2 dwarf synodontis and this guy. Delhezi Polypterus, he's about 3" right now.
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Sep 27, 2013 02:11
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Hey guys, if you haven't been to a petsmart recently (who would, but I don't have much other options here), they have some new varieties of tissue cloned plants now. Liveaquaria has a few now as well which are labeled topfin. A couple that caught my eye: Staurogyne repens Anubias barteri var. nana (yes, the really small one and they also sell regular anubias nana as well) And then this cute little guy: http://www.tropica.com/en/plants/plant-articles/pogostemon-helferi-.aspx Interesting little carpet plant. There were some other plants as well that I didn't catch name of.
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Sep 27, 2013 02:21
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The assassin snails in my planted tank have reproduced. Where once there were two, now there are... I dunno, 25 or so? They may not reproduce as frequently as other snails, but they do a good job when they finally get around to it. In a close examination of the tank though, while trying to count babies, I noticed what appears to be a nematode in the substrate (eco-complete). I've been letting the tank get a little 'mulm-y', and may have overdone it a bit. I did a gravel vac and water change, but otherwise I am not incredibly concerned about the presence of the worm(s) - Should I be?
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Sep 27, 2013 03:10
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Nah, the worms are a good sign that your substrate is healthy and not a gassy deathtrap.
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Sep 27, 2013 03:16
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Question for you shrimp owners! I bought four amano shrimp a few days ago, and all of them went into hiding straight away of course. My tank has plenty of plants and other hiding spots (driftwood, etc). I realize that they need to adjust, but after two days I found them all hiding inside my water pump, all hugging the filter sponge. Is this anything I should be worried about, or will they come out after a while? I carefully released them back in the tank, but I guess they'll head straight back in there.
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Sep 27, 2013 12:59
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I've had to put a filter sponge over my filter intakes to stop my idiot shrimp from all ending up inside the filters. If there's openings they can get through, they will go inside and force you to fish them out, since they cant get out on their own against the inflow.
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Sep 27, 2013 13:05
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Let's hope these guys actually eat hydra. (I really like snails anyway, so no big loss if they don't)
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Sep 27, 2013 13:23
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Extra Smooth Balls posted:Let's hope these guys actually eat hydra. I'm glad you like snails because you have a surprise coming..
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Sep 27, 2013 13:36
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demonR6 posted:I'm glad you like snails because you have a surprise coming.. Luckily I have a pond where I can throw the bazillion babies. 
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Sep 27, 2013 13:43
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Speaking of pests, any tips on black beard algae?
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Sep 28, 2013 00:31
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Double (or more) dosage of Excel worked wonders on my girlfriend's heavily planted tank. When we added CO2 injection it was completely eliminated.
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Sep 28, 2013 01:35
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Extra Smooth Balls posted:Luckily I have a pond where I can throw the bazillion babies. You could also try snail jousting if you are bored.
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Sep 28, 2013 02:24
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I like snails, they play an important role in my tanks, like surgeons removing the dead/damaged parts of plants. I did have an issue the other day where a very large one crawled down through the outflow pipe of a pump I have, and stopped the impeller, as his shell and meaty bits were ground into a mess inside the pump. Today I saw a Pseudohemiodon catfish at my local aquarium, probably one of the only ones in Australia. Very odd species. He was an offspring from a breeding pair that had died, I was told they are carnivorous and require fine sands etc to sift through and hide, kind of like a sole. http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=1824 He looked like these ones:  
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Sep 28, 2013 10:04
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FuriousxGeorge posted:You could also try snail jousting if you are bored. In-jokes have been around for a loooong time. Although now I'm imagining gluing teeny tiny sticks to snails...
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Sep 28, 2013 10:50
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Snail and hydra update: I just found a hydra riding on one of my ramshorns. Goddamnit snail, you had one job!. 
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Sep 28, 2013 13:13
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He's giving out hydra rides.
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Sep 28, 2013 13:15
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I ordered a hydor inline heater and a fenixx temp control. Anyone have experience with these? I'm wanting to pick up an extra canister filter for my tank. Looking to spend around $1oo, any suggestions? Used isn't an option where I live unless I can find something on ebay. I would prefer something around 300 gph flow.
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Sep 28, 2013 16:18
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Whale Cancer posted:I ordered a hydor inline heater and a fenixx temp control. Anyone have experience with these? True Aqua or what I use, knock off Sun-Sun canisters from eBay. I bought two a couple of years ago and they run like champs. It's essentially the company who manufacturers them selling wholesale white box lots and they are being resold.
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Sep 28, 2013 18:03
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demonR6 posted:True Aqua or what I use, knock off Sun-Sun canisters from eBay. I bought two a couple of years ago and they run like champs. It's essentially the company who manufacturers them selling wholesale white box lots and they are being resold. Aquatop, that is what I have been looking at, the UV 400 and 500. Which filter do you have?
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Sep 28, 2013 18:14
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Whale Cancer posted:Aquatop, that is what I have been looking at, the UV 400 and 500. Which filter do you have? The 400 without the UV.. The knock off has the option.
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Sep 28, 2013 19:21
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I also have the Aquatop 400 filter now, based on demonR6 recommendation. 5 months and it's never had any problems. Best $75 I've spent, it finally got my stupid HOB filter out of there.
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Sep 28, 2013 20:13
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