|
Nichol posted:So... I was gifted a 6gal edge and have taken my time setting it up. got a cycle going, added some plants, tested water for a few weeks and finally put a tetra in there. And now... snails!!! I wanted a dwarf puffer from the get-go, but am a beginner and was worried about the difficulty of a brackish water setup. But now that I read more there seems to be differing opinions on whether dwarfs are brackish or freshwater fish? anyone have ideas? would anything else small enough for such a tiny tank take care of my burgeoning snail population? Dwarf Puffers, also called pea puffers, are completely freshwater. In fact, they actually do very poorly in brackish water. They'll take care of your snail issue if they are pond snails, but they haven't done much against my Malaysian Trumpet Snails other than hold the population in check. They do have quite a bit of personality, and are great fish, snails or not. Slugworth posted:Assassin snails. And plenty of people keep dwarf puffers in freshwater with no problems, but they are mean little fish. They will harass your tetra. This is only my experience with them, but I've had three in my 55 gallon community tank with cardinal tetras and mollys for about six months with absolutely no issues. I've heard they can get nippy, but I haven't seen anything from my three so far.
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 06:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 01:02 |
|
|
Dwarf puffers can be little murder machines and one tetra wouldn't stand a chance. Especially in such a tiny tank. In a six gal? VVV Eifert Posting fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Jan 16, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 08:47
|
|
|
Also tetras are schooling fish. You want at least 5 more.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 11:10
|
|
|
I think tetras do better in larger schools, even five is a little small in my humble opinion. For cories that is a good number but for anything like tetra, danios etc. I always recommend ten or more simply because there will be attrition while they settle in and a school of five suddenly dwindles to two or three before you know it and back to the fish store you go with all the headaches of acclimating and attrition all over again. My Cardinal Tetra and Celestial Pearl Danio schools started off at ten and twelve respectively and the tetra are down to ten, the danios at nine over the almost two years I have had them. Both schools have their own cliques as well so at any given time there are five of one here, four over there, six here and so forth so even in a school they don't all keep together. Also they look much better en masse. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 16:50
|
|
|
 6 tetras seems like a lot in such a tiny box!
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 21:49
|
|
|
I would never put that many in a six gallon aquarium. A lot of people go by an unwritten rule of a one-inch fish per gallon. Take into account that your fish will grow so max that out before you do your match. Then take into consideration the bioload of that fish.. mollies for example are considered as dirty as goldfish so you would not want nearly as many as that one inch guideline. You could I guess if you had the double canister thing going on like I do and you maintained your take with weekly water changes but we all know most people want to devote the least amount of effort with this hobby. My stocking rule is take the one inch and halve it so one inch per two gallons. I have 27 in my 55 gallon but I also have two canisters running that I maintain monthly with partial water changes every week and a larger volume water change monthly. The fish I have lost, I think four, have been because they were the weakest of the bunch and it happened pretty early on. I ended up with five cories because almost immediately the pair I initially got busy and the GBR I had missed snacking on a few of the eggs.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 23:26
|
|
|
Down here in Melbourne we're having our 4th day of 40'c+ temperatures. That's 100+ to you imperials. A high of 44c/111f is predicted today. My fish are pretty unhappy. Despite putting ice packs nearby, the water temp is reading a toasty 30c. Hold out guys, only a little longer.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 01:02
|
|
|
That sucks SynthOrange, hope all your little ones come out alright. Makes me feel bad complaining about our recent cold snap here wreaking havoc on my walls. Concrete house + cool weather + tropical fish tanks = condensation and mildew it turns out, bleh. Have been getting results I guess(?) with my mystery swamp moss project. After a month and a half, I've got some actual growth that I'll share in terrible pictures:   All the vertical, light green bits are new growth. I actually gave up on it half way through December, but noticed some growth when I came back after heading out of town for the holidays which was a pleasant surprise. It's taken hold anywhere the pieces were in the tank so it looks like it'll be pretty much everywhere, which is cool. I still have no idea if this stuff grow or even survive submersed though. I think I may pull the trigger and fill the tank up this weekend. If it dies, it dies for a good cause 
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 03:27
|
|
|
I have a celestial pearl danio that looks very strange, and I'm worried it's come down with some type of a disease. He has a small series of visible ridges running from his head to his back fin, and he isn't as vibrant as the others. There also seems to be what looks like a husk around his neck, almost like his head is poking out of a translucent shell. None of his fins look ripped, and his gills seem fine, he swims and acts normally, but he is the only fish in the school that looks this way. I just noticed it this morning, so he cannot have looked this way for very long. E: Upon further inspection, it looks like there is some type of a film covering his head and the top part of his body. I'll probably quarantine him just to be safe. Bait and Swatch fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jan 17, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 16:25
|
|
|
My parents got a betta a few months back and I loaned them my bookshelf tank with filter and heater to keep them from just putting it in a vase like their last two. They thought I was crazy, because their other two survived about four years each, but acquiesced. So naturally the new betta has decided to start dying to confirm their stance. He is just laying on the bottom of the tank nonstop. Swims just fine when he wants to, so I am guessing its not SBD. No other symptoms or signs of disease. Water parameters are all good. I am guessing overfeeding, so I instructed them to not feed him this weekend and to reduce his normal intake. Betta, why couldn't you have outlived the vase bettas?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 17:13
|
|
|
Could there be too much water movement? Does it have plants to sleep/lay on?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 17:33
|
|
|
Bait and Swatch posted:Could there be too much water movement? Does it have plants to sleep/lay on?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 18:08
|
|
|
Went over to my usual LFS that has been closed for a few weeks today, I didn't intend to buy anything because my 20 gallon is going really well now with the new canister. Just figured I'd have a browse. Oh look! Tanks are on sale. I left with a 3ft x 18" x 18" with a stand, foam, and top glass, all locally built. Much cheaper than I got my 20 gallon and stand for. It was going to go in my room but I got they okay to put it up in the lounge room. Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my 200 litres of water.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2014 07:54
|
|
|
A couple of months ago I got a school of bleeding heart tetras to go in a 55g tank with my favorite angelfish. Turns out bleeding hearts can be horrible little fin nippers, so I transferred them all to a 29g tank that was sitting empty. What would be a good centerpiece fish to go in the 29 that can handle those little nipping bastards? I'd kind of like to get a pair of some kind of apisto, but they can be hard to find. I love kribs, but I don't think a 29 is big enough for a pair of them. Any ideas?
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2014 20:39
|
|
|
Sostratos posted:A couple of months ago I got a school of bleeding heart tetras to go in a 55g tank with my favorite angelfish. Turns out bleeding hearts can be horrible little fin nippers, so I transferred them all to a 29g tank that was sitting empty. What would be a good centerpiece fish to go in the 29 that can handle those little nipping bastards? I'd kind of like to get a pair of some kind of apisto, but they can be hard to find. I love kribs, but I don't think a 29 is big enough for a pair of them. Any ideas? You could probably fit a pair of Bolivian or German Rams in a 29 just fine. I don't know how well they'd handle nippy fish, but they seem to have plenty of attitude when necessary.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 04:04
|
|
|
My green slime algae is out of control. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the last of my otos dying. Anything in particular a green algae eating champ? The tank only has some snails and a pair of breeding angels in it right now.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 05:50
|
|
|
Various shrimp if you want the cheap option, they're also low load and great general cleanup, with Amano shrimp being the champions of the cleanup crew.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 05:53
|
|
|
Amanos reproduce easily? Ghost shrimp seemed kinda more interested in flakes and poop than algae.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 06:07
|
|
|
Amanos have a reproduction cycle that needs brackish water, so no. :\
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 06:08
|
|
|
When you say 'green slime algae', is it algae or cyanobacteria? If it's the latter, there's not really anything that will eat it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 11:31
|
|
|
LingcodKilla posted:My green slime algae is out of control. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the last of my otos dying. Anything in particular a green algae eating champ? The tank only has some snails and a pair of breeding angels in it right now. Are you turning the lights off at night? I found limiting the hours of light helped keep algae in check in my tank. Otos eat algae but they can't single handed ly keep the tank free of it
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 15:25
|
|
|
Whaler posted:Are you turning the lights off at night? I found limiting the hours of light helped keep algae in check in my tank. Otos eat algae but they can't single handed ly keep the tank free of it This. Splitting my AM and PM light really helped with algae.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 15:32
|
|
|
Whaler posted:Are you turning the lights off at night? I found limiting the hours of light helped keep algae in check in my tank. Otos eat algae but they can't single handed ly keep the tank free of it Yeah I got timers cutting back the lighting pretty good and no natural light hitting the tank. Never heard of Cyanobacteria gonna have tot look that up. The problem is I didn't want to cut back the lighting too much and hurt my swords. Just replaced the bulb too.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2014 16:33
|
|
|
I really need some advice on substrate and lighting for my new 3ft tank, I want this new tank to have plants that will actually grow unlike in my 20G where the plants are starting to look a bit sad. The 20G came with a case for a screw in bulb which I replaced with a bulb meant for reptiles. So I really have no idea when it comes to setting up lighting for what I guess you'd call a normal fish tank. I've been looking on this site: http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au They're one of the closest places to me that doesn't have insane prices on everything. I'm looking for something that'll fit a 36" tank and actually helping plants grow would be a bonus - the light in the 20G seems to barely keep plants alive. I really have no idea when it comes to brands, bulbs, or anything. I'm also trying to figure out what substrate to go for. I've seen a lot of people going on about dirted tanks but I wasn't sure that I should bother. My plan was to go with either pool filter sand or black sand. I assume if I wanted to go with dirt, that would just sit under the sand. If I was to go with dirt, what would be the best place to get some that would work? I think my main problem with the plants in my 20G is that they're all still sitting in the spot that I put them down, none have grown out at all. It looks horrible just having a bunch of small plants spread around.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2014 13:03
|
|
|
i just picked up a finnex fugeray planted+ . it's supposed to be pretty great, but i haven't had it long enough to verify. i used eco-complete and it worked well. are you going to use co2 injection?
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2014 16:35
|
|
|
I also just picked up one of those finnex lights, and after 3 days my aquarium has a huge mat of algae everywhere. Guess lighting was by far the limiting factor on my plants. Now I just have to get a smaller lighting window to kill some algae, and some more plants.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2014 20:19
|
|
|
I feel like my swords grew better with pebbles and under gravel plate than my current fancy soil substrate. The soil was very rough on my cats too. Finally moved them to a new ten gallon with pebbles and their barbels look great again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2014 23:16
|
|
|
Looks like the time out helped with the behaviour of that loach, and no new nipping has been spotted, yet. My poor shrimp though. I can only see 4-5 at most now. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2014 23:21
|
|
|
You know I had plenty of plants that grew in my pebble tanks. I was using root tabs and some of the more common liquid ferts you can buy on the market. Not everything thrives but there are plants that work in that environment.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2014 00:43
|
|
|
Thanks for those suggestions. I've been looking for a site that will ship Finnex lights to Australia. Impossible apparently and there aren't any suppliers here. It's a shame because that light looked perfect for me (especially since it had a moon light function, that was something I was interested in). Are there any other decent options? I went and bought my substrate too. I went with Eco-complete with some black sand over the top. My cory cats were definitely the reason I wanted to go with sand, I'll most likely be moving them out from the 20G to the new tank and adding a few more to the group. While I was there I grabbed a filter as well, Eheim 2217. I could have just gotten another 2213 like my 20G has but really, who doesn't like a bit of overkill? edit: just realised I missed a question, no I won't be using co2. Too lazy to set that sort of thing up. Ansith fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Jan 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2014 09:46
|
|
|
So, I might just as well post something of my own, because I've been lurking this thread for a loooooong time. Anyways, the setup: 190 gallons of what I like to call an "almost amazon" biotope thingie, 2 X 150W lamps, 2 eheim external filters, one of which has a ph-controlled CO2 rig, plus an eheim powerline XL internal filter for all the poo.  I used to keep discus, but *beep* them. *beep* them so hard. Now I've downgraded (Upgraded? Sidegraded? It depends, I guess) to keeping a school of 5 wild-caught angelfish. Alongside them populating the tank I have roughly 20 sterbai cories (EDIT: I also have a harem of 3 apistogramma cacatuoides. They tend to get lost in the big tank, so you don't see them so often. I thought I was buying 2 females and a male, but it turned out that one of the females was a trap), and whatever left of my schools of 20 ottos and 45 rednose tetras. You see, I had a smallish CO2 equipment malfunction which killed one of my angels, a majority of the tetras and about half of the ottos. It was really a sum of unlucky happenings: I had a heavy dosage of CO2 because of my monstrous lighting rig (2 X 150 W), and the tank had been a bit too long without a water change, so it was about 75% full and the temperature of the water had slowly crept up. This meant that there was a smaller volume of water to absorb the CO2, and the water was warmer so more CO2 could be absorbed into the fluid. Add the lack of circulation because of a busted filter at the time, and you have a recipe for disaster. I still haven't gotten around to filling up my tank again, I mean to get the same 45 rummynoses and a bunch of ottos or farlowellas to take care of some of the algae. After that I had a slight problem with tap water - usually the quality here is good, but one day I witnessed my fish starting to float around mid-water change, exactly after the point when I started pouring water back in. A double dose of water ager did the trick, so it probably was extra chlorine in the water. Too bad the water company couldn't really say anything.  One of my cories and a bafflingly good image quality off my iphone 4s.  The angels aren't fully grown yet, so they might add a couple of inches to their height still. For most of the time that the tank has been running (1 and a half years now), I've had at least a bit of a problem with algae: red, green, hair, cladophora, you name it. The last on the list is extremely difficult to get rid of, so I've settled with just cleaning most of the visible algae weekly and just learn how to emotionally deal with the rest. I'd like to say that it's because I like my tank to look "naturally" good, but I'll have to admit that it's because I'm lazy. SO lazy. Keppi fucked around with this message at 11:40 on Jan 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2014 11:23
|
|
|
Awesome looking tank, Keppi. What are those plants that are growing from inside the tank with the huge leaves our of the water? They look amazing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2014 01:23
|
|
|
I just finished up a 3d background type thing for my softshell turtle. I'd post this in the reptile thread, but I'm looking for suggestions on plants.  The platform on the left is essentially a big bowl of sand for him to burrow in. The back and left sides of that bowl are 1" wide x 3" deep trenches. The idea is, I'd like to have a bit of greenery in the tank, but that doesn't work well when you've got a turtle the size of your palm that spends its entire day burying itself in the sand. That leaves me this narrow trench along the perimeter that he will hopefully not molest. So I'm looking for a plant that can survive partially emersed, with essentially 2" or so underwater, and growing at least 6" tall ideally.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2014 02:02
|
|
|
Well, if it's emersed then you're not really restricted to aquatics. Pothos is pretty hardy and easy, anubiases are slow growing as hell, but will also happily adapt to emersed growth. Both can get large, though might require some support later.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2014 02:30
|
|
|
Pothos unfortunately is on the 'possibly poisonous' list for turtles. Anubias could work. They blossom more often emersed too, so that'd be pretty cool.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2014 03:07
|
|
|
Shakenbaker posted:What are those plants that are growing from inside the tank with the huge leaves our of the water? They look amazing. Thanks. It's supposed to be some Echinodorus sp. "Ocelot" variety. Never had an idea they would grow so large - at one point it just killed all of it's submerged leaves and left the ones that come out of the tank. The tank is 60 cm (~2 feet?) high, so the leaves are almost a meter in length. The roots are probably from the back to the front of my tank! Here's an extra shot of the head of my lopsided Apistogramma cacatuoides harem. He's quite mad that one of his ho's turned out to be a man.  Just look at his face.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2014 08:24
|
|
|
That's a disappointed cichlid, seen it a billion times. Poor guy. And those plants are seriously Echinodorus? I guess I really need to up my light game, good lord. I've got a few Echinodorus osiris in one of my tanks and now I just feel like I'm mistreating them.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 02:25
|
|
|
Shakenbaker posted:That's a disappointed cichlid, seen it a billion times. Poor guy. Yeah, the huge one is definitely Echinodorus. I'm not positive on the species, but the genus is right. When I bought it, it was very small and only had submerged leaves, so it looked _totally_ different from what it does now. The submerged leaves were a lot slimmer and classic echinodorus-like, and the ones that grow out of the tank are rounder. Oh - Don't feel bad, the plants look like that only because of my disregard for electricity bills and energy efficiency concerning lights. The bastards are metal-halide lamps, 150W each, 90% of which turns into heat. They look gorgeous with the beautiful water ripples the insane amount of daylight-warmth light produces. I've been looking into LED rigs, but seems like that the freshwater side of the LED game is still very much in its infancy.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 08:48
|
|
|
MY LED still hasn't come. Last day of my week long doing nothing vacation where I could have mounted it to the ceiling and found a good adapter. It still hasn't come. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 06:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 01:02 |
|
|
No delivery notification, tracking??
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 21:08
|
|