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I heard from Aquatic Arts, the reason why my order hasn't shipped yet is because they've been moving (150+ tanks) to a new location but they're finishing up in the next couple days. My order is the highest priority to be shipped after Columbus Day, and to make it up to me for the wait they're upgrading my Japanese trapdoor snails from 1/8 inch juveniles to adults, giving me another spotted giant Sulawesi snail to replace the one that had a baby and then died, and giving me $20 store credit. I decided to take off the kubotai rasboras that I'd ordered because they're only recommended up to 7.0 pH and I don't think I can lower my pH that much, and they're letting me combine the money from those with the store credit to get another school of Celestial Pearl Danios and a school of 6 pygmy corydoras. I'm super happy with Aquatic Arts again and really impressed honestly. Any other seller could have (and probably would have) just told me to F off and they'd ship them when they got around to it, but these guys were super nice and super apologetic and made it right immediately. So now I'm getting: * 10 adult Japanese trapdoor snails * 3 adult giant Sulawesi snails: one spotted, one orange, one golden * 3 juvenile spotted giant Sulawesi snails * One banjo catfish * 10 Thai micro crabs * 6 pygmy corydoras * 6 Celestial Pearl Danios * 6 Lambchop Rasboras * 12 Chili and Strawberry Rasboras, it's a mixture of those two kinds with 12 total individuals but the ratio of chilis and strawberries is random Also they tend to throw in a few extras, last time I got an extra CPD, hummingbird tetra, and kuhli loach with the groups that I had ordered. So they'll probably give me 7 CPDs, 13 chili/strawberry rasboras, something like that. Everything is still alive from my first order except the Sulawesi snail that had a baby and died (I've heard that's not uncommon) and a very giant hummingbird tetra that was like twice the size of all the others and clearly at the end of its time anyway. All the other things are very active and seem completely healthy, and I didn't get any diseases or parasites so that's always a plus. I got a great deal on aquatic plants from a seller on Aquabid, ended up paying $1.29/plant for bacopa, egeria, (5 kinds of) anubias, (4 kinds of) Amazon sword, water wisteria, narrow leaf hygrophila, red ammania, water lettuce, Java ferns, Java moss, dwarf hairgrass, crypt wendtii, and elodea. But the plants did come with some free snails, fortunately I love snails and actively seek them out but they do make some people unhappy. At least I have freshwater puffers who enjoy eating snails and benefit greatly from my runaway snail infestation... Also it looks like what we thought was an electric blue crayfish is, indeed, one of those all-female self-cloning parthenogenetic marbled crayfish. I really don't want exponentially multiplying infinite crayfish and I don't want to have to kill the babies so we're going to give it to our LFS. We'll probably get one of those dwarf Mexican crayfish or something. republicant fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 04:10
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OK. New substrate in! I mixed some expensive plant substrate in with part of my gravel, and then topped that with the rest of it. I filled the tank maybe 75% of the way with treated water, which was slow going. I used the siphon to not disturb the gravel base. After I got about 75% full I got the plants back in... but they aren't looking super hot. I had to pull out the huge honking Amazon Sword type thing, which had a ridiculous root system. I tried separating it into smaller plants, and then replanted them in a more widely distributed area. They are looking kind of floppy right now, but I'm hoping getting back under a bulb and being planted in nutrients will help them perk back up. The driftwood is fully saturated and looking dope in there! Right now my water is showing signs of having too much "gas" in it - bubbles are on the heater and I see some of them on the sides of the tank. Is this just a matter of waiting for that to dissipate in 24 hours or so? Additionally, I think there are some substrate particles in the water - should I wait for those to fall, or will the filter just take care of those? I have the 200w heater in there now keeping temps matched to where the Rams are in short-term housing. After I completely fill the tank and wait for signs of over-gassing to go away, I plan to do a quick water test, hook up the filter, and get those rams in there. If I wanted to let the filter do its thing for awhile before putting the rams in, could I put the oxygen stone in their temporary housing and run without a filter for any length of time?
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Oct 9, 2015 17:25
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ShaneB posted:OK. New substrate in! I mixed some expensive plant substrate in with part of my gravel, and then topped that with the rest of it. I filled the tank maybe 75% of the way with treated water, which was slow going. I used the siphon to not disturb the gravel base. After I got about 75% full I got the plants back in... but they aren't looking super hot. I had to pull out the huge honking Amazon Sword type thing, which had a ridiculous root system. I tried separating it into smaller plants, and then replanted them in a more widely distributed area. They are looking kind of floppy right now, but I'm hoping getting back under a bulb and being planted in nutrients will help them perk back up. You could for a little while if you did regular (every couple of days, maybe more frequent) water changes.
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Oct 9, 2015 17:38
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Rallos posted:You could for a little while if you did regular (every couple of days, maybe more frequent) water changes. I'm thinking less than 24 hours should be necessary.
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Oct 9, 2015 17:42
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ShaneB posted:I'm thinking less than 24 hours should be necessary. Sould be alright. I asked our local aquarium expert at my office and he agreed.
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Oct 9, 2015 17:44
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I have begun looking for options for a hospital/isolation tank, but I am running primarily into problems with respect heaters, as they seem to be difficult to obtain for small tanks. Any ideas on cheap ways to heat a small (probably 1-2 gallons) tank?
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Oct 9, 2015 19:59
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Male guppy went from two small dots (which I mistook for ich) to having a hole in his tail to having a large tear frin the end of his tail to about where the dots appeared in less than 24 hours. He's in a hospital tank now. I have never seen fin rot move this quickly.
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Oct 9, 2015 20:21
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Coolwhoami posted:I have begun looking for options for a hospital/isolation tank, but I am running primarily into problems with respect heaters, as they seem to be difficult to obtain for small tanks. Any ideas on cheap ways to heat a small (probably 1-2 gallons) tank? http://www.amazon.com/Hydor-7-5w-Heater-Bettas-Bowls/dp/B006JVQ67K I've never seen one less than 7.5 watt. My local Petco sells a few different types of betta heaters as well. It's recommended for 5 gallons, but I've personally used little heaters like these in 1 or 2 gallon containers with no problems. You have to be extremely careful not to let it be out of the water at all while plugged in, because these kinds of heaters will automatically shut themselves off and they will never work again, they basically brick themselves.
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Oct 10, 2015 00:19
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republicant posted:http://www.amazon.com/Hydor-7-5w-Heater-Bettas-Bowls/dp/B006JVQ67K Keep an eye on the water temperature temperature too, most of the time it's fine, but every once in awhile they'll start overheating the tank and things can go bad quickly in a container that small.
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Oct 10, 2015 00:35
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Coolwhoami posted:<<small fish Columnaris ordeal>> Columnaris is hard to diagnose in smaller fish. For whatever reason, I only see good pictures of it on large aquacultured fish (farmed salmon, catfish, etc). And then, it looks very different -- open sores and ulcers the size of a nickel or quarter. As you can imagine, an open sore the size of a nickel or quarter will have consumed the entirety of a guppy. The best pictures I have found for columnaris in small aquarium fish have been using a google search for 'saddleback disease'. I don't know of any concentration of salt that is actually therapeutic for columnaris (ie, that 'kills' it), but dosing the tank at about a tablespoon for every five gallons is a good tonic for fish and will help with mucosal recovery and electrolyte transfer across gills. Keep up with the antibiotics for Gram-negative bacteria. The advice about keeping the temperature low is good, this will keep the bacteria from dividing as quickly (ensure that it is below 75*F, and as close as possible to the lower end of your creature's normal temperature range). Did you pull out your biological media?
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Oct 10, 2015 01:27
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Dogwood Fleet posted:Keep an eye on the water temperature temperature too, most of the time it's fine, but every once in awhile they'll start overheating the tank and things can go bad quickly in a container that small. Yeah it's not a bad idea to get one of those digital probe thermometers with the digital display that suction cups right on the front of the tank, makes it very easy to check the temperature at a glance and keep an eye on things.
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Oct 10, 2015 02:18
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180 stand is primed, tomorrow I'll be painting the exterior a glossy black enamel. The inside will be staying white to help with visibility in the sump area.  Anyone have experience running a planted tank with a sump? I've decided to skip buying the used 65g, and will be converting the 90g bowfront into a planted tank for the angels, tetras, apisto and rams. I'll be staying low-tech I think, but will probably have to buy a new light since the tank is so tall. Looking at this Finnex Planted+ LED
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Oct 10, 2015 04:55
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Fusillade posted:Columnaris is hard to diagnose in smaller fish. For whatever reason, I only see good pictures of it on large aquacultured fish (farmed salmon, catfish, etc). And then, it looks very different -- open sores and ulcers the size of a nickel or quarter. As you can imagine, an open sore the size of a nickel or quarter will have consumed the entirety of a guppy. The best pictures I have found for columnaris in small aquarium fish have been using a google search for 'saddleback disease'. I don't know of any concentration of salt that is actually therapeutic for columnaris (ie, that 'kills' it), but dosing the tank at about a tablespoon for every five gallons is a good tonic for fish and will help with mucosal recovery and electrolyte transfer across gills. Keep up with the antibiotics for Gram-negative bacteria. The advice about keeping the temperature low is good, this will keep the bacteria from dividing as quickly (ensure that it is below 75*F, and as close as possible to the lower end of your creature's normal temperature range). Parts of it, yes; the charcoal and the bioscreen. It looks like I've managed to stem the infection of columnaris, as the guppy that was showing signs has stopped getting worse, and I'm halfway through the treatment. Malachite Green has been administered for the ich, although that will take much longer to deal with as any currently infected fish need to have them all fall off, and any ones I can't see go through the cycle, while also hoping the treatment actually works.
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Oct 10, 2015 05:00
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Is it okay to run my tanks at about ~150% stocking level according to AqAdvisor? Everything is in with compatible species, I have a crapload of filtration (my shrimp tank is at 214% filtration capacity), I just... have a lot of fish. I spent tonight taking inventory of everything that's in my tanks plus the new stuff I'm expecting, and planning and strategizing to try to get all of my tanks as balanced as possible. I'll probably have to look at adding a new 20 gallon tank eventually to relieve some of the load on the other tanks but I think this should be okay for now.
republicant fucked around with this message at 13:14 on Oct 10, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2015 11:21
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republicant posted:Is it okay to run my tanks at about ~150% stocking level according to AqAdvisor? Everything is in with compatible species, I have a crapload of filtration (my shrimp tank is at 214% filtration capacity), I just... have a lot of fish. I spent tonight taking inventory of everything that's in my tanks plus the new stuff I'm expecting, and planning and strategizing to try to get all of my tanks as balanced as possible. I'll probably have to look at adding a new 20 gallon tank eventually to relieve some of the load on the other tanks but I think this should be okay for now. AqAdvisor tends to be conservative on stocking levels. If your fish aren't showing signs of stress and your water parameters are good, then you're probably fine.
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Oct 10, 2015 15:36
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So I might not have time to set up my 75g tank before winter hits. Will it be damaged leaving it in an unheated garage when it gets to freezing or below? The tank is brand new. Never had water in it.
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Oct 10, 2015 21:57
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Who would have the worse time in an aquarium together, macrobrachium or loaches?
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Oct 11, 2015 05:03
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My uneducated guess is the macrobrachium will take his revenge while the loaches sleep. I checked my tanks this morning and found one of my new panda cories swimming around in circles with a pop-eye and a cloud of fuzz around that eye. Red streaks on his face on that side. I'm thinking it is columnaris because it came on so quickly and the red streaks suggest bacterial rather than fungus. I've moved him to a hospital tank and I'm trying tetracycline, I've seen a lot of recommendations for maracyn 2 which is minocycline, the same class of antibiotic so I hope it will work. None of the other fish seem ill (yet) but I will have to keep a close eye on it. Pandas like it cool, columnaris likes it warm, pandas like soft water, columnaris likes more mineral content, so maybe he'll pull through. A few of these cories did have stubby barbels so there was always a chance they could get infected. I'll be disappointed to lose another cory so soon, I wasn't sure about buying from that place again even though its cheap and now I'm pretty sure I won't use them again. But $6.95 for a cory vs $18.00 from the other place (who didn't have them in stock), that meant I could afford to get 8! And if they all die I'll be re-buying them at $18 a pop instead  I'm hoping enough of them do survive that they will be in a big enough happy school.
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Oct 11, 2015 13:17
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republicant posted:**Oh god, I don't want to be That Person who rants about things tangentially related to the topic but I started out trying to recommend a couple good cheap sponge filters and it turned into a very long post. When I have a good experience with a product I have this bad tendency to want to promote it to everyone so they can have good experiences with it too.** Sponge filters and air-powered filters are really awesome things to add to any and every aquarium, they do wonderful things for biological filtration and for the stability of your tank. They provide really gentle filtration and a great home for beneficial bacteria, and shrimp/snails/cories/plecos love to eat the tiny food particles that get trapped on them. I use the first two varieties as pre-filters for my canisters since I have the red cherry shrimp. They get gunked up pretty fast in my aquarium because the mess the cories make kicking up the substrate so I have to change them out every few weeks but I don't have a choice. I have been using the same seller on eBay now for a few years, pricing is comparable and they are a few states away so I get them in a couple of days. Plus she knows me now and messages me to ask me when I need my next delivery! LOL
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Oct 11, 2015 16:19
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) and it's a lot more worth it if you have a Prime account (or a credit card to sign up for a one month free Prime trial).
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Is columnaris something that is in the water at all times and is opportunistic when the fish get injured or stressed, or is it something you have to catch from somewhere else like by buying new fish? I've somehow managed to avoid getting any infectious diseases in my tanks so far, just drain flies and copepods but those are so benign in comparison.
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Oct 11, 2015 16:46
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I've always assumed that any bacteria could be present in the tanks, but they don't proliferate until they get conditions that suit them, like dirty water (or clean water for some, columnaris likes clean oxygenated high pH/hard water) stressed or wounded fish etc. The pop eyed panda cory was dead when I checked, I watched him for a while after he went into the hospital tank and after I added a low dose of medication and he didn't show any distress beyond circle swimming (I think trying to get away from what he could see through his bad eye). A few hours and the gunk on his eye looked 50% bigger, face entirely red streaked, and dead on his side. Not sure if fast moving infection or extra stressed cory didn't like being moved to hospital and medicated. I'm glad it was over quickly.
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Oct 11, 2015 20:02
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Eff, every single one of my tanks is well oxygenated with hard, alkaline water and they're all on the warm side. I guess I'll just try to keep my animals from getting stressed as much as I can. It sucks you keep getting these worms and diseases and things. Are you in Australia or was that somebody else? If so then I guess just like everything in Australia wants to kill you, everything in the water wants to kill your fish. Poor cory.
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Oct 11, 2015 20:22
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I remember you guys were wondering how best to euthanize a fish, this guy uses clove oil not to euthanize but to anesthetize an arowana to cut its fins for cosmetic reasons (I kind of think this was a stupid idea but I don't know anything about arowanas) and it seems to knock the fish unconscious peacefully. If you're going to euthanize a fish by bashing its head in or whatever then you could knock it out with clove oil first to make the process less traumatic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VMohfF-rlM I think I will get a bottle of clove oil to keep on hand in case I end up with a suffering fish.
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Oct 11, 2015 21:46
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All right fish guys, I need help. So until recently my 90 gallon was just for my big male blue-eyed bristlenose pleco and his dozen females. And then some of his fry would escape me, and grow up, and now there's a half dozen boys all kicking the poo poo out of each other, and no breeding. While this was happening I picked up some calvus cichlid juvies and some leleupi juvies, and I have 3 20 gallon tanks in my spare room that I had set for growouts. The plan was to take the 3 20s and use them for QT, and set up a 55 in their place to put the leleupi and calvus in. But with the plecos being fuckers, perhaps I need to scrap that. And put one male in each 20, with a few females. And move the leleupi and calvus to the 90, and keep a few BN plecos in there too. The only issue would be the loving size of the 90, in case I get fry and need to remove them. The calvus were in a tank with julies and devoured a ton of hteir fry and they are pretty good fry eaters.
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Oct 12, 2015 00:27
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republicant posted:Eff, every single one of my tanks is well oxygenated with hard, alkaline water and they're all on the warm side. I guess I'll just try to keep my animals from getting stressed as much as I can. It sucks you keep getting these worms and diseases and things. Are you in Australia or was that somebody else? If so then I guess just like everything in Australia wants to kill you, everything in the water wants to kill your fish. All the diseases I've had in my tanks have been brought in by new fish, and my healthiest fish have been the ones I've had longest or grown from fry that were born here. Quarantine is a great idea, as is finding a reliable supplier. Yes, I'm in Australia and also in a desert town that has no local water, we get it piped in from a river 500 km away after it's been heavily treated so it's not the best by the time it gets here, probably also due to distance the fish I get in the mail may have had a rough journey. My sister uses rainwater in her tanks and gets on okay but my rainwater tank is busted and I'm wary of residues on the roof from living closer to the steel works. She also buys her fish local and has heavy losses within the first few days. So far even with taking different approaches we've still both had to get used to sick and dying fish. I think I'm doing better with water now that I've got mineral replacement for the RO system. Once I'm left with only healthy fish I think it will settle down a bit.
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Oct 12, 2015 01:11
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republicant posted:I remember you guys were wondering how best to euthanize a fish, this guy uses clove oil not to euthanize but to anesthetize an arowana to cut its fins for cosmetic reasons (I kind of think this was a stupid idea but I don't know anything about arowanas) and it seems to knock the fish unconscious peacefully. If you're going to euthanize a fish by bashing its head in or whatever then you could knock it out with clove oil first to make the process less traumatic. My method for euthanizing fish has always used a mixture of clove oil to anesthetize then after ten minutes when the fish is at the bottom of the cup not moving, you should see very little gill movement, that is when the vodka comes in which after about 20-30 minutes the fish has expired. I have had to do this now fives times all with bettas and the one GBR and really attached to all of them which sucked doing.. They got really good vodka though.
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Oct 12, 2015 02:23
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Here's a little update on the tank: For comparison, here's how I inherited it:  Lots of work left to do, but I'm really happy.
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Oct 12, 2015 04:49
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That looks great! How are the rams coping with their temporary accommodation? Or did you put them back already?
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Oct 12, 2015 06:06
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That's a hell of a difference and something about that current look is really pleasing to me.
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Oct 12, 2015 06:43
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I think it's the rule of thirds. In the old tank the plant takes up a full half of the tank, it looks too heavy; in the new tank it is slimmed down to a third which just looks better. A planted tank often looks better with less types of plant, clumps of only one or two kinds unless you want a wall of foliage Dutch style aquascape. I like the natural style aquascapes more, they're less busy and it leaves more room for the fish although a well maintained Dutch style tank can look amazing.
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Oct 12, 2015 13:16
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Stoca Zola posted:That looks great! How are the rams coping with their temporary accommodation? Or did you put them back already? Thanks! The plants aren't super perky, but they are old as sin and I'm hoping they transplant well. They have legit substrate under the gravel so I'm crossing my fingers they get better. If not, I'll replace I guess... The rams went back in last night. They are still doing what they do, which is hide by the big planting really close together at the bottom of the tank and not moving. It's kind of depressing. Could they do better once I add more fish to make it a community tank? This Wednesday or Thursday a high-quality LFS is getting some koi swordtails in from a local breeder. That's going to be my first school!
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Oct 12, 2015 13:41
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Double posting due to my weird work firewall hiding buttons, sorry: I was thinking of getting a smaller sponge filter to use in my tank as a way to have an easy-to-access quarantine filter when I get new fish or need to isolate a fish or something due to disease. Is this a good use for such a thing? I have an old pump and a 3-way valve thing, so I was thinking of just running 2 stones and the sponge filter off that. ~~bubbles~~ Oh, and yeah that plastic ridged stuff was some remnant of an under gravel filter. What happened to it was anyone's guess. ShaneB fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Oct 12, 2015 |
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Oct 12, 2015 17:02
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ShaneB posted:Double posting due to my weird work firewall hiding buttons, sorry: Yeah, keeping a sponge filter going in your tank is a great idea.
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Oct 12, 2015 18:46
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ShaneB, just something to watch out for in case you didn't already know since you mentioned the plant looking a little funny: Cryptocorynes like your plant tend to go through a melting period where the leaves turn mushy and fall off after a major (or sometimes minor... one of mine started melting when I added an extra dose of Excel a week to help my amazon swords grow better) change in their conditions. It looks like the plant is dying, especially if it starts losing a bunch of leaves at once, but it's not. It just looks gross for a little bit before it grows new leaves to replace the ones that melted off. It's kind of annoying but mostly harmless as long as you don't let all the melty leaf bits rot in your tank.
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Oct 12, 2015 20:23
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I've had this ongoing argument with my boyfriend about what species of cories are in one of my tanks. He insisted they were Melini cories but while they have the right stripes on their face and back, Melini cories have no spots. I thought they were Schwartz's cories but while Schwartz cories have tons of spots, they don't have the thick black line going diagonally down their upper back. We thought maybe they were some kind of interbred Melini/Schwartz hybrid but I finally looked at an identification guide with pictures of the 161 different cory species and figured out that they are Corydoras loxozonus. I'm not sure how Petsmart ended up with cories that don't even have a common name but they're pretty cool cories. I have a school of 7 and they're extremely bonded with each other, the biggest one seems to be their leader and every member of the school follows him all over the tank. When they decide to sit on the substrate and rest for a minute they're usually all together, just seven of the same exact fish sitting together.
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Oct 13, 2015 02:22
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republicant posted:I have a school of 7 and they're extremely bonded with each other, the biggest one seems to be their leader and every member of the school follows him all over the tank. When they decide to sit on the substrate and rest for a minute they're usually all together, just seven of the same exact fish sitting together. Man I can't wait to get my cories.
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Oct 13, 2015 02:24
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I just bought my very own 25 foot Python water changing hose ngnnggggggggggggghhhh yesssss. I won't need the fleet of ~5 gallon pickle buckets that I had brought home from work anymore. Also finally took the plunge and bought a 100-gallon canister filter for my turtle tank, I was never willing to spend the money on it but my SO managed to punch a hole in my Decorative Reptofilter so I had to get a new turtle filter anyway. I've never owned or used a canister filter before so it should be a fun experience. And got a digital timer power strip so I can finally get ALL of my lights on timers. So glad to be leaving the stone age. Also I got a new Marineland Penguin 350 filter. With both the Marineland and the canister filter I keep reading people talking about "priming" the filters, what exactly does that mean? I'm still getting used to using anything besides those 10 gallon Tetra filters you suction cup to the side of the tank. republicant fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Oct 13, 2015 |
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Oct 13, 2015 07:48
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It's just making sure the filter is filled with water to at least submerge the impeller, so it can fill on its own or clear out the rest of the air on its own or otherwise not run dry. But wait, wait, can we go back just a bit here. republicant posted:Also finally took the plunge and bought a 100-gallon canister filter for my turtle tank, I was never willing to spend the money on it but my SO managed to punch a hole in my Decorative Reptofilter so I had to get a new turtle filter anyway.
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Oct 13, 2015 11:46
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Freshwater Aquarium thread E/N edition. 
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Oct 13, 2015 11:56
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  Sever.
Rallos fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Oct 13, 2015 |
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Oct 13, 2015 14:50
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