|
That's why we have a garden tub.. throw them in there and see what happens. Granted it is in the master bathroom and my wife would likely be mad but whatevs..
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2015 17:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 16:53 |
|
|
Sunnies have gotta be the biggest dicks in the animal kingdom. Everytime I tried I ended up feeding them to a Snapping Turtle. Little assholes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2015 18:50
|
|
|
I've been keeping fish since I was a kid. My dad was big into fish even before he met my mom. I've pretty much always had CA/SA cichlids so I wanted to try something new. So far these guys seem to act just like their SA cousins. I have 15 of them right now in my 75 so I know at some point I'm going to have to thin the herd. We'll see how it works out. Everything is just fine right now but I know all hell is going to break loose when they get breeding size.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2015 20:24
|
|
|
I'm needing a new fixture and bulbs for my 29g. I had a 65 watt bulb at 6700k and it worked pretty well for a long while. Anyone have any suggestions for something at least as powerful? I've got 15" between the glass lid and the top of the substrate. In terms of plants I'm keeping it nice and simple for now, and doubt I'll ever try to grow anything as difficult as ground cover type plants. Right now I have anubias, java moss, and some crypt of some sort or another. Looking to get a new light setup ASAP. Help! Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2015 21:19
|
|
|
I've been happy with my Finnex LED fixture, it would work great on that tank I'd think. On an unrelated note, I'm not too happy with my african mbuna tank. They will kill a newly introduced 6" fish overnight, but won't so much as touch any of the 30+ fry in there that I don't want and can't get rid of. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 00:09
|
|
|
I've bitched about this before, but I come seeking ethical advice now. I am trying to keep cherry shrimp. And failing. Hard. All water parameters are within recommended levels for shrimp, the tank is cycled, other things are living just fine in there (CPDs, otos, snails), copper and lead have both been tested for, and the shrimp just keep dying. I started off by buying a couple here and there, and replacing them when they died. Then I bought two dozen at a local fish show thinking "Maybe if I put a bunch in at once, there will be a little die off, but enough will survive to start a colony". 3 males survived. Those males however, have been alive for about 2 months now though, so I decided "Maybe the tank is safe now. Maybe there was something off-gassing in the tank that has now stopped, or maybe there was a virus/fungal outbreak killing them all that has passed now", so I bought two more a few days ago. One has already died. So I appear to just have lovely shrimp killing water, and the 3 toughest shrimp on earth. My question is, how awful would it be to consider purchasing another two dozen and allowing natural selection to yield a few more 'toughest shrimp on earth', hopefully including some females, so I can start a breeding colony of shrimp somehow miraculously suited to survival in my shrimp killing water? I will admit I feel dirty planning to essentially kill a bunch of shrimp in a eugenics program..
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 01:17
|
|
|
Enos Cabell posted:I've been happy with my Finnex LED fixture, it would work great on that tank I'd think. That's actually what I was leaning towards, so thanks for being able to back that up. CFLs were so easy, and now I just have no clue when it comes to lighting for planted.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 01:27
|
|
|
Desert Bus posted:That's actually what I was leaning towards, so thanks for being able to back that up. CFLs were so easy, and now I just have no clue when it comes to lighting for planted. The best tip is to look up a par guide. That'll help you get an idea when it comes to led on how much you need. Slower growing plants don't need as much. The finnex may be too much light for the tank. Maybe. There are a couple of companies with finnex being one that actually has a par map so you know how much light you are getting at various depths. Back that up with some info on about how much par your plants need should answer it. That sounds like too much research for a "gotta have this in the next few days before plants die" so a finnex should work fine. I've been using a fugray myself and able to grow dwarf baby tears with it. Slugworth posted:I've bitched about this before, but I come seeking ethical advice now. I am trying to keep cherry shrimp. And failing. Hard. All water parameters are within recommended levels for shrimp, the tank is cycled, other things are living just fine in there (CPDs, otos, snails), copper and lead have both been tested for, and the shrimp just keep dying. I started off by buying a couple here and there, and replacing them when they died. Then I bought two dozen at a local fish show thinking "Maybe if I put a bunch in at once, there will be a little die off, but enough will survive to start a colony". 3 males survived. Those males however, have been alive for about 2 months now though, so I decided "Maybe the tank is safe now. Maybe there was something off-gassing in the tank that has now stopped, or maybe there was a virus/fungal outbreak killing them all that has passed now", so I bought two more a few days ago. One has already died. What are you keeping the water temp at? I was having a similar issue and realized I was running the water too hot. The otos and cpds in the tank didn't care, but apparently the shrimp did.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 01:33
|
|
|
The water temp for the shrimp is a good question. Aside from that, I would have your water tested for something else that might be off. When you get your shrimp, how do you acclimate them before you introduce them into the tank.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 02:14
|
|
|
JuffoWup posted:That sounds like too much research for a "gotta have this in the next few days before plants die" so a finnex should work fine. I've been using a fugray myself and able to grow dwarf baby tears with it. B) Water is at 74. Most sites list 65-80 as a range, some list 72-80, I figured I would be safe at 74 either way.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 02:17
|
|
|
Have you ruled out parasites or disease? Your three survivors might be resistant and might be killing the newcomers Typhoid Mary style. I have had a few shrimp die slowly over time myself (not sure how many since at least one was mostly eaten before I saw it and it has probably happened like that more than once) and tried finding information on shrimp diseases, the most extensive site I found unfortunately wasn't in English. This page has info on diseases and poisoning with pictures of affected shrimp, might give you some clues as to what is going on - Google translate doesn't do a bad job. http://www.crustakrankheiten.de/schnelldiagnose/diagnosetabelle-verf%E4rbungen/ http://www.crustakrankheiten.de/vergiftungen/vergiftungssymptome/ The other thing is are you buying adult sized shrimp? They don't live that long so if you're buying full sized ones they could be dying of old age. In my case I believe my shrimp have been suffering from poor water quality, I'm seeing orange discolouration and I believe my tank to be overpopulated. I'm setting up a new tank in hope of spreading the population out and improving quality of life. Just got my RO unit in the mail today too so it will be an interesting experiment to see how they do in treated water. I've read though that shrimp can be hit by something (poor water, disease) and die slowly, long after you get them even though they've had perfectly fine conditions while in your care. So it makes it look like its something you did wrong but really it's that an affected shrimp just doesn't recover.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 02:26
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:Have you ruled out parasites or disease? Your three survivors might be resistant and might be killing the newcomers Typhoid Mary style. I have had a few shrimp die slowly over time myself (not sure how many since at least one was mostly eaten before I saw it and it has probably happened like that more than once) and tried finding information on shrimp diseases, the most extensive site I found unfortunately wasn't in English. This page has info on diseases and poisoning with pictures of affected shrimp, might give you some clues as to what is going on - Google translate doesn't do a bad job. That is one hell of a site, I will need to dig into it. No English site has so much information. As it stands, I can't say I have ruled out disease, but I never saw any symptoms. Vorticela seems to be the big one for cherries, and I never saw signs. The two dozen that I purchased were a healthy mix of adult and juvenile. I have purchased from three different locations. I drip acclimate. I have considered going with RO water, but haven't found good info on a shrimp-appropriate mineral mix to use. I hate you, shrimp.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 03:17
|
|
|
I have a whole house water softener and had them install a tap between the filters and the brine tank so I get the benefit of it being filtered minus the bad crap but not softened either. I do top offs though using the softened water.. if you have seen the pics of my tank you know they do well. The water here in Orlando is terribly hard, high in nitrates and enough chlorine to kill you.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 04:39
|
|
|
The RO system I got lets you dial back in the hard (but filtered) water to get the hardness you want (either for taste of drinking water, or for aquarium use). I had to swap the charcoal bit for one that handles chloramines vs just chlorine, and that cost a bit extra but at least the guy I bought it from knew there was a difference and advertised as such on his site. I think a lot of systems sold here just assume you want to treat chlorine or even worse, assume all you care about is removing mind control fluorine from the water. I've been drilling the holes to mount it in the laundry and I've discovered that drilling brick is my least favourite thing ever.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 07:41
|
|
|
This might sound crazy, but have you ever not drip acclimated? For marine fish I always did, especially marine inverts, but for freshwater fish, unless I know they come from RO or a wildly different (lower) pH, it's literally slice the bag, dump the water, and dump the animals into the QT tank.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 11:28
|
|
|
Cowslips Warren posted:This might sound crazy, but have you ever not drip acclimated? For marine fish I always did, especially marine inverts, but for freshwater fish, unless I know they come from RO or a wildly different (lower) pH, it's literally slice the bag, dump the water, and dump the animals into the QT tank. I think at some point in the future, I will try a brand new tank, different substrate (using seachem fluorite, which I suspected briefly due to it containing trace copper, but copper testing found nothing and plenty of people seem to be using it with shrimp), and ro water with saltyshrimp GH+. Just frustrating to need to jump through so many hoops for a species that is by all standards remarkably easy to keep. At least the ro setup will allow me to try some of the more sensitive species if it ends up working out for the cherries.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 17:54
|
|
|
I read a big article on acclimation and drip acclimation is pointless. Fish take a long time to adjust to a different PH, weeks. During transport the water they are in build ammonia and when you open the bag it increases even more. The best thing to do is get them in clean water asap. The most important thing is the water temp. As long as the water is warmer or no more than 3 degrees cooler than the water they are in you are alright. I've never drip acclimated a fish and I've never lost one which leads me to believe its true.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 18:25
|
|
|
I've got the cycle going, but got bored looking at a weirdly empty tank, and put a robo fish in there. Don't. Yeah, it moves around, but it also gets stuck behind the heater and the filter and the batteries don't last long either. I spent more time rescuing it than I did watching it swim about. Also, it stands a chance of messing things up, because who knows what was in the factory where it was made. So..lesson learned, be patient.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 18:44
|
|
|
Haha. How big is your tank? If you wanted to you could buy a bottle of seachem stability and a couple of white clouds or zebra danios and speed up your cycle. Just follow the directions and test your water and do water changes accordingly and your tank will cycle in less than a month without ever reaching toxic levels.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2015 09:47
|
|
|
Hey Central Florida goons.. I bought a 50lb bag of Zeolite for a new tank I am setting up and will have extra so if anyone was curious and wanted to try it out we can meet up. It was relatively inexpensive at $31 for the bag and is a super substrate. PM me if you are interested.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2015 16:46
|
|
|
Getting concerned about my Peacock Eel, Ol' 12 Eyes hasn't been visible for about 2 weeks. I have had my Eel for roughly 6 months, so I'm fairly familiar with his behavior. He's out constantly, or at least visible, even during the day. Generally, my eel will sit in one of three places. I have been checking them constantly, light on and off and haven't seen him I've tried moving some of the larger rocks and other decor but I cannot find him. None of the other inhabitants have shown ANY signs of infection/irritation. I'm concerned he's either rotting under the rocks, or something changed in the tank and he escaped from the small hole at the rear and the cat had lunch. My tank; 40 Gallon Tank, 2.5 inches of river gravel/large rock substrate. 55 GPH Filter Standard top light Roughly 65 degree water temp Tank mates; 3" Green Sunfish 3.5" Green Sunfish 3" Rockbass 3 Bullfrog Tadpoles 4 Rabbit Snails 4 Bicolor Snails 2 Onion Snails Could the recent cold water with unregulated water temps be causing the eel to just not want to come out? Could it have killed him? I really enjoy watching this drat eel, he's a blast. Ironsolid fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Feb 15, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2015 07:18
|
|
|
If he died in your tank your ammonia levels would be up. Two weeks is also long enough that the other tank inhabitants could have eaten the entire carcass and you havent noticed. Have you removed the rocks to check?
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2015 09:01
|
|
|
Ironsolid posted:Getting concerned about my Peacock Eel, Ol' 12 Eyes hasn't been visible for about 2 weeks. I have had my Eel for roughly 6 months, so I'm fairly familiar with his behavior. He's out constantly, or at least visible, even during the day. Generally, my eel will sit in one of three places. I have been checking them constantly, light on and off and haven't seen him I've tried moving some of the larger rocks and other decor but I cannot find him. None of the other inhabitants have shown ANY signs of infection/irritation. I'm concerned he's either rotting under the rocks, or something changed in the tank and he escaped from the small hole at the rear and the cat had lunch. Did you look in your filter? If he's anything like a weather loach, he may have squirmed his way in there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2015 09:26
|
|
|
How big is he? They prefer water about 10 deg warmer than where you are at. He could have escaped but they do hide a lot and they will also burrow in your substrate.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2015 16:51
|
|
|
The eel is about 5 inches. I have checked my filter and moved all of the bigger rocks in the tank. I have also recently removed about 20 lbs of smaller rocks to clear out some of the substrate for more plants.
Ironsolid fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Feb 15, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2015 18:52
|
|
|
So, my newt of five years managed to escape his tank and get eaten by my roommates dog. This is a bit traumatic for me  RIP Isaac Newton. But now I'm left with a depressing and empty fluval spec V (his temporary housing). If you could stock something in there, what would you do? I feel like shrimp would be too small for me to enjoy given the placement of the tank.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2015 20:23
|
|
|
You'd be surprised how much entertainment shrimp bring. sure at first it won't be that amazing, but once they relax and start growing a population your tank will constantly be busy I honestly miss seeing mine hanging around in the open. There are still some in there, but they hide under the rocks all the time for fear of the angel fish picking them off
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2015 23:41
|
|
|
For the Spec V sparkling gourami might be cool. That or maybe pygmy sunfish.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2015 07:43
|
|
|
Get shriiiiimp!
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2015 08:14
|
|
|
Get some cheap cull RC shrimps from a hobbyist shrimp breeder, they'll handle a small tank better than fish would, they do a great job of tending to plants so that they are clean of biofilm, get more light and grow better. The fissidens moss tied to a twig in my shrimp tank looks amazing and is doing heaps better than the similar twig in with the fish. I don't think you need purebreed super red cherry shrimp to enjoy keeping them. I think my shrimp are doing a lot better with filtered/RO water vs dechlorinated tap water; I had another failed moult today but there were 3 or 4 successful moults at the same time so hopefully the gradual shift towards softer water will stop this problem altogether. And I set up a second tank and have moved my two saddled females in, along with a few of the best coloured males. With all the sponge filters I have going it sounds like a bubbling chem lab or something. Shrimps are really cool and I kind of regret having non-shrimp friendly fish in my big tank so in the short term I am stuck with having them in small tanks. I'd love a big tank with a huge shrimp colony in it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2015 13:41
|
|
|
Any idea what this stuff is?  I had a friend just text me and said it appeared out of nowhere. I've been keeping an aquarium about 3-4 years so I'm not an expert, but I've never seen anything like it before. I'm assuming it's some sort of algae? He said it won't vacuum up. It's stuck to the rocks like glue. Git Mah Belt Son fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Feb 19, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2015 00:58
|
|
|
Red slime algae! Actually it's a bacteria, but eh, treatment is same as with algae. Cut lights, nutrients. There's also commercial solutions for the problem. As usual, find out what changed recently.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2015 01:06
|
|
|
So I came back from a weekend vacation and that night my blue ram pair finally spawned for the first time. Yay! Dozens of tiny ram eggs all over the sword leaf. ... and then 90% of them got eaten overnight. Got a net breeder, cut the leaf with the remaining eggs, put it in there. A few days later(last night, actually) they hatched! I had about 7 teeny tiny blue ram fry wiggling at the bottom of the net. Wake up this morning, and they're gone. So something must have sucked them through the netting, which I didn't think was possible. So, lesson learned, and I'm gonna transfer them to a new tank entirely next time. Not sure how long that'll be, though, considering now the male is chasing the normal female all over the tank and focusing on the electric blue instead for some reason.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 23:37
|
|
|
What do you do with excess fish anyway? I've got a month-old 30gal tank I dropped three swordtails and some misc mollies/tank cleaning fish in, and I think I underestimated just how uh productive the swords are because every week like clockwork there's another one of these little dudes in there It's not a problem right now, there's plenty of room for what I've got and nobody's messing with each other but I don't think in a few weeks there'll be room for a giant multigenerational swordtail incest family in this little tank. I'm not really cool with killing stuff just because it's surplus and don't think they'll get big enough to eat or anything, is there somewhere I can consistently sell them off to other than, like, Craigslist? I guess I sorta assumed they'd occasionally eat each other and keep themselves in check, or at least that the females would not be constantly enormously pregnant. At least the mollies haven't done poo poo 
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 03:25
|
|
|
Well in the wild it's assumed that there'll be predators and like 90% of the offspring will be eaten. Anyone got any nice swordtail recipes? You could see if your LFS is interested in buying them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 04:38
|
|
|
SynthOrange posted:Well in the wild it's assumed that there'll be predators and like 90% of the offspring will be eaten. Catch fish, pat dry, cover in cheese, eat by the handful? 
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 04:49
|
|
|
I think if you haven't got a second tank to separate out your males then getting some kind of barbs that can handle similar water conditions and will gobble down your extra fry would be an okay solution. Your tank isn't providing enough natural predators at the moment and a little school of barbs would help out there. Rosy barbs probably poop too much and add too much bioload (and rip up plants) and tiger barbs are fin nippers, but golden, gold or cherry barbs might be okay.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 05:07
|
|
|
daggerdragon posted:Catch fish, pat dry, cover in cheese, eat by the handful? I'm pretty sure I'd need a microscope to gut them and that's a lot of work for a weekly snack Stoca Zola posted:I think if you haven't got a second tank to separate out your males then getting some kind of barbs that can handle similar water conditions and will gobble down your extra fry would be an okay solution. Your tank isn't providing enough natural predators at the moment and a little school of barbs would help out there. Rosy barbs probably poop too much and add too much bioload (and rip up plants) and tiger barbs are fin nippers, but golden, gold or cherry barbs might be okay. I'd been looking at a couple cherry barbs earlier, hadn't even considered them as part of a little aquarium food chain, thanks.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 06:10
|
|
|
A Wizard of Goatse posted:I'd been looking at a couple cherry barbs earlier, hadn't even considered them as part of a little aquarium food chain, thanks. Make sure you get enough of them so they can loosely school, 5 is the minimum number you see quoted all over the place for barbs. When I had just three they were absolutely timid although you already have some fish so that might make them a bit braver. Barbs need enough of their own kind that they can arrange a pecking order or else they try it out with your other fish, who don't know how to respond properly (and thats where the nipping comes in). I've read a school that is too small can result in one fish being bullied, but I haven't seen that happen with my barbs (perhaps that advice was for tetras now that I think about it). My tank is 30ish gallons so won't be big enough for when all 15 of the baby barbs reach adult size but for now they are mostly under an inch in size. The three adults pretty much ignore the youngsters and do their own thing. Mostly the little barbs are spread loosely all around the tank but I do see little teams of 5 forming every now and then to patrol around the tank. So I think the number 5 isn't just something someone pulled out of their arse, it does correspond to their behaviour.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 07:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 16:53 |
|
|
Yeah I have concerns about putting too much stuff in there bc right now I've got the 3 swords big enough to matter + 3 mollies + 3 assorted catfishy dirt eating things so from what I read plunking 5 more fish in there might lead to problems when some of them start being more than an inch long. OTOH I'll probably lose a couple here and there before they get full grown so maybe that'll work for now anyways.
A Wizard of Goatse fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Feb 21, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 08:11
|
|