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Snail eat snail - even when not Assassin? We have a massive Mystery/Apple snail, must be at least 10-12cm diameter shell, and recently introduced a rabbit snail to the tank. Now, the Mystery snail will not leave that poor rabbit snail alone - no matter how far we separate them ( opposite ends of a 260L tank ), the big guy cruises over to the rabbit and just wraps him in a loving embrace. It doesn't look like weird mating behaviour, but it also doesn't look like he's trying to eat it because his mouth is never anywhere near the shell. He just goes over, wraps his foot around the entirety of the shell and kind of...sits there. I've read all sorts of conflicting stuff about any snail may/may not eat any other snail if they're too slow etc, but we have some Nerites that spend most of their time just sitting in one place growing algae and he's never tried to do this to them. Maybe he just likes the...shape or texture of the rabbit snail shell? 
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Dec 27, 2015 21:40
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| # ? May 28, 2024 05:36 |
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Alpha dominance behaviour.  Got home, tiny bit of holiday food blocks left. Critters all look alive, cant ask for more. edit: wait, one of my macro shrimp is missing. 
Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Dec 28, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 05:56
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Frontosa fry are still doing great, they are up to 1" or so now. Also have 30 red empress fry   The papa 
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Dec 29, 2015 05:42
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Woke up to find that someone was so kind as to unplug an extension cord, leaving multiple tanks without heat and filtration, and that the temperature in my rabbit snail (need 80°F+) tank was 71°F. Luckily the probe was just in the air instead of the water and the water was actually 79°F, so it must have been relatively soon after everything was unplugged, but that's a pretty infuriating start to a day. I begged the little baby snails not to die. 
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Dec 29, 2015 18:15
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Enos Cabell posted:Frontosa fry are still doing great, they are up to 1" or so now. Gorgeous stuff!
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Dec 29, 2015 19:09
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Bummer. Tonight one of my rosy barbs ate so much pea at once that he filled his mouth hole right up and jammed it, couldn't breathe (I guess?) and died. I peeled every pea and hand smooshed each one to make sure there were no big or hard bits so I can only guess greed did him in from trying to hoover too many bits at once. I didn't stay to watch them eat so I really don't know how it went down, but 20 mins later when I came back he was dead on the bottom with his bros trying to eat his eyeballs, his mouth so full of pea it was distended and stuck open. I couldn't get any of the pea out while he was dead so I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done anything to help while he was still alive either. Might stick to giving them duckweed instead of peas, so far no one has killed themselves on that.
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Dec 30, 2015 17:57
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So....anyone ever had their male bristlenose start to lose their bristles?
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Dec 31, 2015 00:02
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My understanding is the males bristles are for attracting females so if your guy has no reason to have them then they gradually start shrinking. It made sense to me at least.
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Dec 31, 2015 00:19
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Try dosing some Viagra?
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Dec 31, 2015 00:29
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Well if there aren't any females in the tank that would be a bad idea..
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Dec 31, 2015 00:36
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Plenty of females and caves. A few males fanning in the caves but no eggs. And every male has less bristles than before.
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Dec 31, 2015 01:07
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Fish beards are out of style, they're just trying to keep up with the times.
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Dec 31, 2015 02:49
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Amazon has 100ml Purigen packs with bag for $6.70 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002A5VK2
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Dec 31, 2015 05:05
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Holy crap thanks for that link, they'll ship to AU for five bucks so even with the exchange rate thats STILL cheaper than what I'd pay here.
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Dec 31, 2015 08:55
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That is a damned good price for that. I have one of those packs in each of my canister filters and it works like a charm.
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Dec 31, 2015 15:36
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Got a message from a friend a few weeks ago asking if I wanted some fish because one of his tanks had gotten a bit out of control. I decided I'd help him out and shuffle some fish around in my tanks to free one up since all three have similar fish in them. They ended up being Saulosi cichlids, I haven't really kept cichlids before (apart from a few GBRs) so I did my research and got my 200L tank ready for them. Took us about an hour to get 13 little ones out of a 3ft tank, he started with 6 and has about 30 left. It's been a couple of days now and they're all settled, one of the bigger males is starting to show some blue colour already. I still need to grab some more rocks for the tank since I only had one left and the place I get them from opens back up on the 4th. I grabbed a shot of them eating some shrimp that I wasn't able to catch when I pulled everything out and changed the substrate. It didn't take them long to eat them all. 
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Jan 1, 2016 09:08
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I'm moving house. How much water do I need to retain so as not to shock my creature or gently caress up the cycle? I know to keep the filter sponge submerged in tank water, and I've got sand as a substrate.
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Jan 4, 2016 20:20
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 Bollock Monkey posted:I'm moving house. How much water do I need to retain so as not to shock my creature or gently caress up the cycle? I know to keep the filter sponge submerged in tank water, and I've got sand as a substrate. Put the sand in a 5 gallon bucket, put the sponge filter on top of the sand, and fill with tank water until it's all submerged. If you're moving far enough away that the water from the tap is drastically different, fill a second 5 gallon bucket with water. This is instructions for 10-20 gallon tank. If bigger, the more water you can bring the better. Maybe pick up a battery powered air pump to keep the sponge filter going.
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Jan 6, 2016 06:24
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Desert Bus posted:Put the sand in a 5 gallon bucket, put the sponge filter on top of the sand, and fill with tank water until it's all submerged. If you're moving far enough away that the water from the tap is drastically different, fill a second 5 gallon bucket with water. This is instructions for 10-20 gallon tank. If bigger, the more water you can bring the better. Maybe pick up a battery powered air pump to keep the sponge filter going. I've got about 9 US gallons (35 litres) in my tank. The new place is only about a mile away so it will take 30-45mins maximum I'd say once everything's in the car to get it from there to the tank's new home, so I was planning on leaving the sand in the tank with enough water to cover it and just moving it that way, then putting the filter sponge in a ziploc bag filled with tank water. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? I was thinking to leave my axolotl in a small temporary tank with tank water overnight to let the sand and new water settle then move him in from there.
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Jan 6, 2016 13:00
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Bollock Monkey posted:I've got about 9 US gallons (35 litres) in my tank. The new place is only about a mile away so it will take 30-45mins maximum I'd say once everything's in the car to get it from there to the tank's new home, so I was planning on leaving the sand in the tank with enough water to cover it and just moving it that way, then putting the filter sponge in a ziploc bag filled with tank water. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? I was thinking to leave my axolotl in a small temporary tank with tank water overnight to let the sand and new water settle then move him in from there. I don't like leaving the substrate in because it increases the chance of the tank twisting and seams failing or glass cracking, but since the tank is so small it's probably not an issue. Your plan for the filter sounds good. If you put a plate on top of the substrate and aim for that when you pour water in it will greatly reduce the amount of stuff that gets all mixed up in the water. One thing though, and I may be wrong here, since I've never kept Axolotl, I thought they needed heavy filtration. You may want to pick up a Hang on Back filter. If you put it in when setting up the tank, it will greatly help clear up the water, and in the long run give it much better filtration.
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Jan 6, 2016 16:17
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Two things for you guys: Thoughts about sinking food vs floating food for goldfish? I'm weighing up whether to buy Hikari Gold on account of the fact that I don't think I like the idea of my fish gulping at the surface when feeding. On the other hand, sinking pellets are much more prone to falling into the gravel and rotting. At the moment, I usually intersperse packet food with bloodworms once a week, and a pea/broccoli mix I puree and freeze in blocks twice a week. They seem quite happy with it, but I want to improve what they get on the other days. Secondly, I have a black moor that's become increasingly aggressive as he's hit maturity. As soon as my goldfish's breeding tubercles popped up they started chasing each other. The redcap has totally stopped, but the black moor won't. It's gotten to the point where the redcap's tail has a few small tears in it. Should I put him in a breeding net for a little while to see if he cools off, and if so, how long should I leave him in there for? Also, I picked up an apple snail after we lost our little white platy and he owns. I can see why so many of you have a problem with them.
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Jan 6, 2016 20:47
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Goodpart posted:Two things for you guys: I feed mine sinking pellets because they got all upside down and stupid gulping air. But I use sand as my substrate and they love sifting it around. They also get peas which they love. I'm not sure on the sexual aggression. Mine aren't old enough yet. They are only 7 months, or they are all girls. No idea. Edit: alright the living room tank is just about finished. I have the hard scale done and am now debating on which plants will go in to finish it. It's 55 gallons running 2 Marineland Magniflow C220 canisters, a UV sanitizer and a heater set to 78. There is a 48 inch Finnex Planted+ 24/7 for lighting. Yes it's sittin under the shelving under my television. We love it there.  Probably going to add some more anacharis, some sword leaf plants, some dwarf baby tears and Java moss. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Jan 7, 2016 |
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Jan 6, 2016 20:59
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Do you have to move the TV every time you do maintenance? Seems like it'd be a pain in the rear end.
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Jan 7, 2016 18:33
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Enos Cabell posted:Do you have to move the TV every time you do maintenance? Seems like it'd be a pain in the rear end. Nah my TV is mounted to the wall and all the electronics are in a closet in the other side. I have no wires on this side. The shelf just lifts off since I made it out of some black walnut boards and it lays on the fixtures bolted to the feature wall wood. It's really a 20 second operation to get to the top of the tank. There is enough space to reach in and sprinkle food as well as do water changes with the pump if I want to. It's no real hassle. I need to stain and nail on the trim for the wood and styrofoam slab it is sitting on though. Pretty it up a bit. It will kind of look built in when it's done, which is what I was going for. We bought a small house on purpose and this was the only place for it, but it worked out because it fits exactly into the opening between the floor and the shelving and fills up the space nicely. Plus we get to watch the tank during time when the TV is off and it's relaxing.  I guess it's easier if I just showed you. I'm currently building boxes out of walnut to cover the filters and hoses on the left so you won't see them, but it's been raining for days now. Just cleared up. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Jan 7, 2016 |
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Jan 7, 2016 19:03
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Errant Gin Monks posted:We bought a small house on purpose and this was the only place for it, but it worked out because it fits exactly into the opening between the floor and the shelving and fills up the space nicely. Plus we get to watch the tank during time when the TV is off and it's relaxing. Looks good! I ended up doing the exact same thing with my tank, and I'll find myself just watching the tank instead of turning on the TV. Also helps to give that area some appeal when the TV is off.
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Jan 7, 2016 19:58
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Errant Gin Monks posted:
Ahh ok, that makes much more sense. From the first picture I thought the TV was right on top of that wooden shelf a few inches above the tank. Looks good!
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Jan 7, 2016 20:12
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I'm worried about my little snail, you guys. I found him this morning, clutching the tubing that connects to the air stones in the tank, completely immobile. I gave him a tiny prod to see if he would respond, and he just fell to the bottom of the tank and closed up. I've since placed him right side up in a clear space on the tank floor and he's shriveled up, slightly exposed. I've done some quick reading around the place and found that it's possible that he's just really loving full and is sitting there in "hamburger face", chilling out until he's ready to move again. He's not floating, and he didn't stink when I extracted him for a quick inspection, but he's not responding to anything, and hasn't moved all day. I'm going to leave him overnight and hope that he moves in that time, but I don't know if I should be hopeful or not.
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Jan 8, 2016 03:48
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So, I have an issue I can't sort out. my tank is long since cycled, I have an LED that the LFS said should be good enough for plants in my 55 gal tank, but the only plants that seem to survive are my crypts. I've tried several other low light plants and they just slowly disintegrate. I just pulled thee last 2 non-crypts today because the leaves were turning black and had holes in them, and half the root system was just falling apart. I'd really love to keep live plants, but it looking like it's not going to be realistic. Any Ideas?
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Jan 8, 2016 04:17
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What were you planting? If you're planting anubias and java ferns those roots should sit above the substrate or they'll rot.
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Jan 8, 2016 04:23
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"[ts posted:xenophobe" post="454711976"] Can you post the model light you have and some examples of what kinds of plants melted? Some plants need lots more light than others do. Also could be that the light would be fine on a shallower tank but doesn't have the umph all the way down to the substrate in a 55 given how tall they are.
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Jan 8, 2016 04:47
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SynthOrange posted:What were you planting? If you're planting anubias and java ferns those roots should sit above the substrate or they'll rot. I've tried anubias on lava rock, and those died, I can't remember the ones I just pulled out, I'd have to go back to the lfs and find them. As far as lighting, I bought this: http://elivepet.com/fish/lighting/led-module-track-light/ To which I added 2 each of the high output and plant growth pods listed on the page below http://elivepet.com/fish/lighting/led-pods/
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Jan 8, 2016 19:08
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Just did a 60% water change on both aquariums in under 30 minutes. Man I love this faucet pump. Makes life so much easier. Added the rest of the sand to the 55 gallon while I was at it and I'm happy with the effect. It basically cuts down on the shininess of the substrate a used to build up the cave and adds more depth and texture to the hillside there. I need more plants! But probably not until next week.
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Jan 8, 2016 23:33
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"[ts posted:xenophobe" post="454732288"] Without PAR values it's hard to say, but a 55 gallon is going to be 21" high (I believe), which means if your plants are sitting at the bottom, they still might not be getting enough light. The nana variety of Anubias barteri (the most common of them) can often start short enough to not be in a decent enough light spot, and if you buried its rhizome that would also cause problems (but "on lava rock" implies to me that you did not). One way to see if it is a light related problem is to elevate the plants within the tank substantially and see if they improve. If they do, it is likely that the light is not penetrating deeply enough into the tank. Plants are pretty sensitive to major changes in water parameters so if that happened for some reason that could be why. Another possible cause could be excess or insufficient nutrients, as excess phosphate can cause what you are describing (and won't usually have a correlatory algae bloom without excess nitrates as well). Phosphate can be high natively in water as well as due to food or fish waste, so if you have a way to test it I would recommend it.
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Jan 9, 2016 01:26
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"[ts posted:xenophobe" post="454732288"] Looking at their site, along with a little searching around plantedtank.net makes me think the lights are your culprit:  (from their site, guessing the top one is what's in the base fixture) Not sure really why they'd put blue LEDs into the plant pod, if anything it should be ~6500k white with the reds. The high output is a 10000k which is also tossing out a lot of blue and not a lot else. The whites on the base fixture I'm guessing are the 4000k which are also not much of anything for plants, but really any of their white lights look to be bleh for plants. I'd say the Color Enhancing pods would probably be the best bet to replace at least the four add ons you bought, as far as usefulness goes. I also kind of doubt it's putting out enough light in general. From the manual:  Gonna assume that's a typo and they meant 10-20 Anyway, I'd guess that you'd need to be closer to 20 pods rather than 10. For whatever reason they don't provide any PAR (photo-synthetically active radition) values, only lumens. So there's no real way to know how much useful light the fixture produces and even if you got it to the point plants are happy you're also probably going to have been battling algae problems like crazy. Were it me I'd take the thing back because it really just doesn't sound like a light meant for planted tanks at all, even if you toss a bunch of pods into it.
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Jan 9, 2016 01:28
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Shakenbaker posted:Not sure really why they'd put blue LEDs into the plant pod, if anything it should be ~6500k white with the reds. The high output is a 10000k which is also tossing out a lot of blue and not a lot else. The whites on the base fixture I'm guessing are the 4000k which are also not much of anything for plants, but really any of their white lights look to be bleh for plants. I'd say the Color Enhancing pods would probably be the best bet to replace at least the four add ons you bought, as far as usefulness goes. Chlorophyll a has the highest absorption (on the blue side) at ~440 nm, while Chlorophyll b increases from before 400 to 485ish. Blue light ultimately has higher energy and thus given the option between red and blue, blue light will be preferable because it penetrates deeper,, which is why a lot of plant lights have them (and because they result in that cooler colour temperature as mentioned):  PAR evenly measures all light between 400-700 nm, therefore it is very possible for a green light (which would be the least useful for plants) to show a level of PAR despite there being superior options. The above chart is also deceptive, as the difference between green and blue/red lights in terms of absorption is ~30% (hence why all light in that range is treated equally). Lumens are not a great measure of plant growth usefulness most primarily because it is a weighted calculation in accord with the human eyes' sensitivity. This makes it an especially bad measure in LED lights because they can emit extremely specific wavelength ranges, and it irritates the poo poo out of me that those values are reported at all, as they are not very useful for gauging their effectiveness inside a tank for lighting alone.
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Jan 9, 2016 01:48
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Shakenbaker posted:
Unfortunately, it's far too late to take it back for anything other than credit as a used item. I've also been having this issue with my t5 (normal) fixture. I guess, for the time being, i'm going to give up on live plants. I can't justify a new setup at this point. I should have bought the finnex i was looking at. Everyone seems to be having great luck with that. Thanks for the input.
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Jan 9, 2016 06:11
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While the light info is important, It's anubias, guys, they can live for weeks in an open bucket under a counter. I've had them thrive in 20" of water under a single decade-old T8 tube. If they died in less than, say, three months, I'd doubt it's from a lack of light. Also if it was anubias and not some other type of plant that got black and got holes in it (I'm guessing it was another plant that did that, like maybe a sword or Java fern), that's not a symptom of low light. Not enough light on anubias, in my experience, shows up as yellowing on the leaf edges, which slowly takes over the leaf -- usually starting at the lowest/oldest leaf and working "up" the rhizome.
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Jan 9, 2016 11:40
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"[ts posted:xenophobe" post="454756159"] I have been using a slim Finnex LED light fixture for a little over a year now that replaced the quad T5 setup and I am very happy with it. It's like it never missed a beat when I swapped them out, everything is as green as it used to be minus the heat from the giant light fixture and the expense of replacing bulbs every few months. I'll snap a pic when I am home later but everything grows without issues. I have three different crypts, bacopa, anubiasa metric poo poo ton of moss. It's great!
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Jan 9, 2016 16:24
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I agree with WithoutTheFez. Maybe lighting is a secondary issue? In terms of really low effort hard-to-kill live plants, I really love my water wisteria. It grows differently based on lighting, but it can grow in high or low light. It'll grow tall and lush, and any leaves that pull off will regrow into a new plant. It can grow planted or floating. Anacharis is another personal favorite and another plant or float option. Loving all the new pics! Gin Monks, your tv setup looks rad! My big tank is next to my tv, too. My cat often sleeps under the table it's on. Ichabod passed away over Christmas. He wasn't acting right for a long time, so it was kinda inevitable, but still really sad. In happier news, I just got my new fish today! This is Garnet (not a Steven Universe thing, I promise). He changes color based on the lighting, but he's really pale, so I can't wait to see what color he turns as he grows. He's really tiny, so I think he's young. I'm really hoping he'll be around for a good long time. He's settled happily into his 5 gallon. It's really fun to watch him explore and vacuum up all the detritus worms he sees (leftovers from the other tank, I expect).   In the 20g, I have 5 new guppies. 2 leopard lyretails, 2 black tuxes and one red and black dotted. They're really outgoing and are nibbling basically everything in their new digs. I really like them so far! If they all work out well for a few weeks, I'll be going back for a few more and maybe a dwarf gourami.   Hopefully with all these bottomless pits swimming around, I'll be seeing fewer detritus worms.
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Jan 10, 2016 04:53
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| # ? May 28, 2024 05:36 |
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-Edit- Sorry, double post.
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Jan 10, 2016 06:22
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