Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


Facebook Aunt posted:

Corys don't tolerate poor quality water, so once the first one dies and the water fouls things can go downhill fast. It's possible at some point in the trip their box was in the sun or in a hot truck so the water got a little too warm and the stress was just too much for the little guys.

Kind of figured. We've had some unseasonably warm weather, so I wouldn't be too shocked. Hopefully it cools off in the next few weeks and I can get some healthier little dudes in.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

learnincurve
May 15, 2014

Smoosh
Ever been to an aquatics shop so posh it has it's own street view (head to the blue wall ahead of you) https://www.instantstreetview.com/@53.279932,-1.282196,340.41h,-23.57p,1z

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

learnincurve posted:

Ever been to an aquatics shop so posh it has it's own street view (head to the blue wall ahead of you) https://www.instantstreetview.com/@53.279932,-1.282196,340.41h,-23.57p,1z

sure

The Saddest Rhino
Apr 29, 2009

Put it all together.
Solve the world.
One conversation at a time.



Day 8


dead fish = 2
17 fish remain.

the dwarf gourami, as Stoca Zola accurately diagnosed, got sick with iridovirus and the next morning went on to the great ether. the final surviving (red?) barb decided to get itself stuck between one of the driftwood and the glass wall for likely >8 hours, and when i freed it it performed a little song and dance spinning like pennywise around the tank, before finally doing a tiny "gently caress it" and descended right into the teapot.

so i'm reminded i actually took a couple of photos of the aquarium when my ex was taking care of it solely


only 5 fishes of that Nov '16 configuration survived. in the beginning, i used to carry dead fish out and gave them shallow graves in my potted plants. then they all kept dying and it became flushes down the toilet. in that sense, it was an allegory of the relationship reaching a normalization of tolerating each others' bad behaviours and going slowly down the drain.

anyway i dug tiny holes for the two fish in the MOL's Tongue plant pot and they will continue the circle of life by being fertilizer. namaste.

also i have no idea what that long white tube that seems to be connected to the powerhead is. is there meant to be water coming out there? nothing after Nov '16 suggests its existence

Stoca Zola posted:

If the coffee badge has a metal back, probably best to take it out of the tank (no harm in sticking it on the front glass tho). Some metals can be hazardous to aquatic life if they dissolve in water.

If you see any anubias or cryptocoryne plants that you like the look of, they're pretty easy to keep and you could tuck an anubias into the driftwood or some crypts in the gravel along the back of the tank.

removed the coffee badge and a little rubber pig, replaced with some glass thing. i also "potted" the cordyline. added an anubias too.



i did the aquarium test as a few others recommended:

pH is between 7.2-7.6
Ammonia 0-0.25
Nitrate 0-5
Nitrite 0

i find it incredible everything other than the pH seems to be in tip-top condition. so i'm seeing how to improve the pH, maybe more plants

quote:

Your filter looks like what a lot of tanks have built in to the lids, a trickle or wet/dry filter. The powerhead is obviously picking up a lot of gunk which is good, but it looks like this set up clogs fairly quickly. I think you've got room in your filterbox for more media - usually what you aim for is to catch all the lumps in coarse sponge or other material that doesn't clog so easily (some people use plastic pot scrubbers) and then have progressively finer sponge or matting and then ceramic media or crushed lava rock or some other hard rough material with a large surface area at the bottom layer, which forms a platform for the bacteria to live on. They'll live on everything else too, but hopefully by the time the water gets to this biological media, all the big waste chunks are gone and the bacteria can work efficiently on digesting the ammonia without being smothered by chunks of fish poop.

I reckon measure the size of your filter box and see if you can find some coarse sponge/foam that will fit for a top layer, and maybe some ceramic media to put at the bottom layer. You can keep using your existing layers of filter mat but it will eventually wear out, so if you don't already have some spares grab some new stuff. When it does wear out, just layer some new stuff in among the dirty stuff to let it get nice and filled with bacteria, and then wait a few weeks before taking the old stuff out. I find sponge is easier to clean and lasts pretty long in a filter (don't forget to give a new filter sponge a good rinse before use). If you don't have a gravel vac/siphon hose grab one, if you don't have an air pump to drive the sponge filter, you should grab one of those too. Grab a clip on LED light (one with blue and white) or if you can find one that goes the length of the tank, those are good too. Live plants need a bit more light than the "viewing" quality light your LED tube seems to be. You might be able to buy a replacement suction cup holder thing for your light too so that you don't have to have it taped. Actually I think I have 4 of those kind of LED tubes among my tanks, the blue end caps are the same anyway.

Fish Noise posted:

650 L/H max flow rate
The black tube coming out of the side of the powerhead is where I'd normally expect the output to be, so the blue tube is connected to... another output? Is the black tube capped, or is there water coming out of it?
Follow Stoca Zola's recommendations on filter adjustments though.

the black tube seems capped. like, i think that was where the Nov '16 white tube was connected to but i can't really identify it

i went to a local fish shop that looked like they actually know what they were doing (and not selling CHINESE ALGAE EATERS) , and spoke to this guy who makes money giving classes on aquariums and terrariums. he sold me this bio substrate/pumice rock setup, so i poured half into the filter and then covered it with the original sponge. i'm recommended to remove the sponges after 1-2 weeks then pour more rocks in. not sure why he didn't recommend a sponge filter or an air pump, but i'll hold on to that for the next round of fish shopping. their led lights are also crazy expensive and i'm probably ordering one from taobao


https://www.lelong.com.my/caridinex-habitat-1-5l-filter-media-benibachi-bacter-base-ada-bio-rio-aquacult-168449571-2018-09-Sale-P.htm

i'm fairly sure i got fleeced re: the filter rocks, but his tanks use the same thing and when i poured into my tank, the water did look a bit cleaner (after an hour of cloudy water which would have panicked me if not for advice from this thread)

quote:

A brief googling suggests that Ocean Free General Aid is just acriflavine, so when they say recently developed german fish medication, they apparently mean 1912

ok that genuinely made me lol

quote:

An alarming proportion of fishkeeping is basically a neverending parade of death, disease, and poop.

😢

on another note, the chinese algae eater that i accidentally bought - i placed it in a tub of water which i was using to trim the roots of a few money plants, then completely forgot about it until today. i went back to check on it and the little fucker's thriving



i'm still figuring out what to do with it. it's living in filth and it's surviving, just like me living in a hell of my broken emotions. the day you die, chinese algae eater, is the day i'll finally learn to move on. or you'll just keep living forever and grow up to be two feet long. then you just represent the pain of yearning.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

I've lost more rosy barbs to misadventure than to disease by now I think. They're big enough to get themselves into trouble but clumsy enough not to be able to get out. Greedy enough to eat so much food that they die from it. I still like to keep them though, they school really well, they get excited to see me, and they're super easy to look after once you know their quirks. It looks like you have some green tiger barbs? Or are they all dead now? If the fish that died is one of those orange ones with the black fin and black spot, I think those might be serpae tetras.

quote:

also i have no idea what that long white tube that seems to be connected to the powerhead is. is there meant to be water coming out there? nothing after Nov '16 suggests its existence

That's a venturi fitting with an airline, the way it works is the water goes past and the shape of the tube creates a low pressure which sucks air down the tube and produces bubbles in the filter outlet. That powerhead looks like it could be set up to have two outlets, which would assist in water circulation. However since it is driving the water up into the media box, the second outlet has been capped so that all the flow goes up and gets filtered - which means there's no point leaving the venturi and the airline attached.

quote:

pH is between 7.2-7.6
Ammonia 0-0.25
Nitrate 0-5
Nitrite 0

That pH is actually fine, if you can keep it stable your fish will be happy. It's maybe not ideal to get every fish you own into breeding condition, but that's not your aim. The ammonia should be 0 but I am guessing there is a little bit of a mini-cycle going on due to the filter being washed in tap water but nitrite is still 0 and if you are seeing a little bit of nitrate I do think your filter is still functioning. If your ammonia levels get any higher, do a water change. You'll just have to keep your eye on it until your filter recovers. The filter rocks you got look to be "live" with bacteria, which is actually ideal for your situation even if it might cost a bit more than buying them dry. I think they'll help your filter bounce back, also I'd be tempted to not get rid of your existing sponges just yet either. The cloudiness when you added things to the filter could just have been dislodged bacteria or even particles from the gravel.

If you want to do that algae eater a favour you could try selling him to someone who wants him and then he'll be out of your life for good instead of lingering in a tub. Or at least tip out a bit of his poop water and give him some fresh stuff every now and then.

Edit to add: how dare I touch the rocks to make the caves bigger! they're all stuffed in the same cave instead of the newer bigger ones that I made.

Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Sep 24, 2017

The Saddest Rhino
Apr 29, 2009

Put it all together.
Solve the world.
One conversation at a time.



Stoca Zola posted:

I've lost more rosy barbs to misadventure than to disease by now I think. They're big enough to get themselves into trouble but clumsy enough not to be able to get out. Greedy enough to eat so much food that they die from it. I still like to keep them though, they school really well, they get excited to see me, and they're super easy to look after once you know their quirks. It looks like you have some green tiger barbs? Or are they all dead now? If the fish that died is one of those orange ones with the black fin and black spot, I think those might be serpae tetras.

oh, it looks like the one that died is one of the remaining serpae tetras. i'm now reading it's a schooling fish, so when everyone else died it probably stressed out and got itself stuck. because loneliness is the true monster

there are 4 green tiger barbs, i honestly think it's not looking good for at least one of them. there are 2 that constantly fight by bite-kissing each other every ten minutes or so, and there's one that hides face-down all the time on the right side (you can even see it doing that in the pic above).

quote:

That's a venturi fitting with an airline, the way it works is the water goes past and the shape of the tube creates a low pressure which sucks air down the tube and produces bubbles in the filter outlet. That powerhead looks like it could be set up to have two outlets, which would assist in water circulation. However since it is driving the water up into the media box, the second outlet has been capped so that all the flow goes up and gets filtered - which means there's no point leaving the venturi and the airline attached.

oh, sounds like the ex took off the venturi with the actual knowledge. i guess i'll leave it be for a bit.

quote:

That pH is actually fine, if you can keep it stable your fish will be happy. It's maybe not ideal to get every fish you own into breeding condition, but that's not your aim. The ammonia should be 0 but I am guessing there is a little bit of a mini-cycle going on due to the filter being washed in tap water but nitrite is still 0 and if you are seeing a little bit of nitrate I do think your filter is still functioning. If your ammonia levels get any higher, do a water change. You'll just have to keep your eye on it until your filter recovers. The filter rocks you got look to be "live" with bacteria, which is actually ideal for your situation even if it might cost a bit more than buying them dry. I think they'll help your filter bounce back, also I'd be tempted to not get rid of your existing sponges just yet either. The cloudiness when you added things to the filter could just have been dislodged bacteria or even particles from the gravel.

If you want to do that algae eater a favour you could try selling him to someone who wants him and then he'll be out of your life for good instead of lingering in a tub. Or at least tip out a bit of his poop water and give him some fresh stuff every now and then.

i wanna thank this thread (stoca zola, fish aunt, synthorange, fish noise) for the really amazing advice on the filter and keeping the cycle well. i'm gonna pay attention to it in the coming month and make sure things are okay and i don't kill fish on a daily basis

funnily enough someone just asked me about the fish and wanted to know about good algae eaters. she has a turtle and wants to keep one or a pleco in the tank. i told her no.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

The Saddest Rhino posted:

there are 4 green tiger barbs, i honestly think it's not looking good for at least one of them. there are 2 that constantly fight by bite-kissing each other every ten minutes or so, and there's one that hides face-down all the time on the right side (you can even see it doing that in the pic above).
...
funnily enough someone just asked me about the fish and wanted to know about good algae eaters. she has a turtle and wants to keep one or a pleco in the tank. i told her no.

Barbs are schooling fish too, tiger barbs particularly are known to misbehave when they aren't in a large enough school. They'll nip each other and other fish in the tank (especially gouramis' feeler fins or any other long fins or slower fish). If you don't have a large enough group, any aggression between fish isn't spread out, so a single fish can be bullied and stressed to death. In a bigger group generally they work out a pecking order, everyone knows their place, and they feel safer from "predators" (ie you wear a new shirt, they're terrified of you until you feed them lol). A video about schooling fish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0h2qvkqVn4 I'd worry that the tiger barbs would injure their mouths and then be unable to eat and die from that- normally I wouldn't recommend adding more fish to your tank, especially not without quarantining and not until your filter recovers. But maybe in a couple of weeks or so, it might be a good idea to buy some more tiger barbs to get them to behave themselves a bit nicer. You want 6-8 total and with the size of your tank I wouldn't get any more than that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKo7KCanvn8 Here is a video of what happens when you get too carried away with tiger barbs.

A community tank can be a real juggling act or even a trial by fire, and it isn't an easy way to start out keeping fish. I think its one of the reasons new fish-keepers fail or give up on the hobby, it can be a real challenge to satisfy every fish's requirements while fitting within the limitations of the tank, filter, heater, local water conditions, local climate, etc. There are a lot of variables! If you stick with it and are willing to experiment to find out what works for you, it can be very rewarding. Some people are lucky or had access to good information or good quality fish right from the start, and have one successful beautifully planted well behaved tank. But a lot of fish keepers end up needing to get a second tank because of not being able to keep certain fish together, or wanting to try different plants or setting things up a different way, and then you end up with multiple tank syndrome (MTS). MTS is also malaysian trumpet snails, which multiply in the substrate of many of our tanks. It's like poetry, it rhymes.

learnincurve
May 15, 2014

Smoosh
Need to pick your brains again. We've decided to go for some form of cichlid. The medium tank would be 60l-100l (16-26 of your American gallons). I read that they can get fighty in small numbers, would this tank be big enough and if so what breeds/how many? Would alge eaters live happily amongst them, if they don't then I've found a tank roomba.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

Cichlids are a pretty broad category - African or American? That size range of tanks you're kind of limiting yourself to the smaller cichlids I think. Edit: Oh that's right, you wanted a planted tank so you are looking at small American cichlids there I think. Don't see why you couldn't get otos to go with them, as long as you're willing to supplement their algae diet with wafers and fresh blanched veg etc.

Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Sep 24, 2017

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


learnincurve posted:

Need to pick your brains again. We've decided to go for some form of cichlid. The medium tank would be 60l-100l (16-26 of your American gallons). I read that they can get fighty in small numbers, would this tank be big enough and if so what breeds/how many? Would alge eaters live happily amongst them, if they don't then I've found a tank roomba.

That's a great size tank for a pair of smaller cichlids. I'd look into south american species like apistogramma or blue rams.

learnincurve
May 15, 2014

Smoosh
! I just saw pictures of blue rams and that's it, that's the perfect fish. :) otos as a cleaner fish seems like a plan as well.

Sentimental bloggy bit. I moved into a new, much bigger, house this year. I've never had a dining room before, or flooring that would be appropriate for a large fish tank. My lack of furniture in the dining room means I have the space for tanks. I'm going to start off small and then when I know what I'm doing buy a ostentatious over the top tank. After that probably a saltwater coral tank to complete the set.
My son is seriously disabled and absolutely loves fish, fish are his thing, he watches YouTube videos of fish and stuff. We have had special needs tiny fish tanks with fake fish and jellyfish in them for him that he loves, but for the past 15 years every time we have been past a pet shop or aquatics store we have had to go in so he can watch the fish. His face when he sees we have a tank of our own is going to be ":D"

Facebook Aunt
Oct 4, 2008

wiggle wiggle




Word of caution with the otos: wait until you actually have some algae growing. Most otos are still wild captured so they can be a bit delicate and first and some don't take to algae tabs right away. Ideally you want to see them at feeding time in the store eagerly munching on a food tablet, then buy that same brand of food tablet.

Don't get me wrong, they are fantastic fish. They just have a reputation for dropping dead for no apparent reason when you first get them.

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


And then there were 3. Maybe.

Out of 12 panda cory's ordered:
2 DOA
4 dead within 24 hours
3 more dead Sunday morning.

Can't find the other 3 - its like they vanished.

I feel ~slightly~ better when talking to one of the ladies at the LFS who has several tanks, years of experience, and ordered some at the same time as me, and she had the same issue - virtually all of them dead. We both suspect either bad water put into the bags, or that the shipment somehow got WAY too hot and the cory's were basically just waiting to die before we got them. Still loving depressing because I love the little dudes, but the manager of the LFS is going to either refund me/re-order at no cost, so that's good at least.

Mak0rz
Aug 2, 2008

😎🐗🚬

We got the other Eheim up and running again. Thanks for your help everyone!

Didn't get any pics of our setup for the curious, so have some pictures of my dopey little dude as thanks instead:

In the old tank:




In the new tank:



He's eating and behaving like normal so I consider his transfer to my desk a success :buddy:

Bonus pic of our crayfish, Amy. She has a bad attitude and wants everyone to know it!

gay picnic defence
Oct 5, 2009


I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS
Does anyone know if a fish changing colour is an indication of stress or illness? I got home late and turned on the fish tank light so I could see enough to feed the blackfish and he was a unusually pale. He was active enough, chasing my fingers up and down the length of the tank and came to the surface to take a chunk of squid from my hand but his colour was noticeably off.

I am hoping it is just the colour he goes once the light turns itself off and by turning it on (which I don't normally do) I'd caught him in his night mode.

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Fish do get paler at night when they're sleeping. Check him out the next day

gay picnic defence
Oct 5, 2009


I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS
Yep, he's back to his usual colour now. I generally make a point of not disturbing him by turning the light on after dark so I hadn't seen his night colours in daylight before.

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

He was embarassed you caught him sleeping nude.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

The usual place has panda cories for cheap today - they weren't selling them yesterday and I was previously thinking about pygmies but the price is pretty much the same so I might set up a species only panda cory tank instead. It would be so cool to get them breeding!

And if too many of them die, once any survivors are out of quarantine I can put them in with my other pandas and maybe swap the trilineatus into that tank, I've got three males to one female so they might have some successful spawns if they're in their own tank.

Luneshot
Mar 10, 2014

Axolotls are so cute, goddamn. If I didn't live in the desert and was home enough to take care of them I'd totally get one.

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


Stoca Zola posted:

The usual place has panda cories for cheap today - they weren't selling them yesterday and I was previously thinking about pygmies but the price is pretty much the same so I might set up a species only panda cory tank instead. It would be so cool to get them breeding!

And if too many of them die, once any survivors are out of quarantine I can put them in with my other pandas and maybe swap the trilineatus into that tank, I've got three males to one female so they might have some successful spawns if they're in their own tank.

Hope you have better luck than me. The Panda's are freaking cute as all hell, and I really hope my 2nd batch fare better.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

Thanks, I hope so but I know from previous experience that they don't ship well and they are a bit touch and go for quite a while after. I've got a school of six survivors from a couple of attempts to order them last year (probably 15 total) and once I got them stable they have been pretty solid, surviving both disease and mistakes. I think this time my quarantine set up will be better, I should have an established filter to use and I've also got medication and live foods which I hope will give them the best chance to recover. The reality is they come a long way from the fish farm and won't have much recovery time before they're shipped again to me. A stressful time in filthy conditions and I'm not sure what happens if the seller puts pure oxygen the bag the Cory takes a sip of air. Ideally I want breeding colonies of all my favorite fish so that I don't have to put them through that stress! I'm working towards that with peacock gudgeons and it would be great to do the same with corys. My other favorites are longer lived so I'm not expecting to replace those guys for quite a few years yet (bigger loaches and catfish).

I've seen all my corys wall climbing and swimming on top of each other lately and I don't know if they're in a spawning mood or just having fun. Never seen a cory egg yet though! Maybe it's the right time of year.

CrashScreen
Nov 11, 2012

So, the younger goldfish has swimbladder disease. The poor guy is struggling to not be stuck at the surface, and I feel pretty bad. He's currently staring and gasping at me from the side of the tank next to my desk, while fighting furiously to stay on level. The gasping suggests stress, right? There's not much I can do right now, since it's 1am here and we don't have much.

Fortunately, I think it's just from taking in too many air bubbles. I came back from a five day trip (they were under care) to find the tank at 26.5°C, which might be a bit warm for goldfish and definitely not good for oxygen. That was yesterday, but the temperature hasn't dropped much even with the top now left open (and next to an open window for a cool breeze). I know food can contribute, and they got fed flakes today too. They went to the surface a lot more than usual. He'd be okay until morning, right? Is there any other signs I should look for to just rule out parasites or infections to be sure too? The other one seems fine right now, but I'm still a little concerned.

I really do feel bad seeing the young one in a lot of stress though.

Mak0rz
Aug 2, 2008

😎🐗🚬

Luneshot posted:

Axolotls are so cute, goddamn. If I didn't live in the desert and was home enough to take care of them I'd totally get one.

They are adorable little fuckers but the goon that referred them to them as "poop monsters" is one hundred percent correct

Facebook Aunt
Oct 4, 2008

wiggle wiggle




CrashScreen posted:

So, the younger goldfish has swimbladder disease. The poor guy is struggling to not be stuck at the surface, and I feel pretty bad. He's currently staring and gasping at me from the side of the tank next to my desk, while fighting furiously to stay on level. The gasping suggests stress, right? There's not much I can do right now, since it's 1am here and we don't have much.

Fortunately, I think it's just from taking in too many air bubbles. I came back from a five day trip (they were under care) to find the tank at 26.5°C, which might be a bit warm for goldfish and definitely not good for oxygen. That was yesterday, but the temperature hasn't dropped much even with the top now left open (and next to an open window for a cool breeze). I know food can contribute, and they got fed flakes today too. They went to the surface a lot more than usual. He'd be okay until morning, right? Is there any other signs I should look for to just rule out parasites or infections to be sure too? The other one seems fine right now, but I'm still a little concerned.

I really do feel bad seeing the young one in a lot of stress though.

Green peas are the usual remedy for swim bladder troubles.

If you think the oxygen levels are low then a short term fix is to do a partial water change. If it is a chronic problem adding an airstone to make bubbles may help.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

Facebook Aunt posted:

Green peas are the usual remedy for swim bladder troubles.

Don't forget to parboil and peel the pea! When I feed peas I smush them a bit to make sure they're soft enough and to make getting the shells off a bit easier. I've got loaches, tetras, barbs, otos, corydoras, platydoras, guppies, gudgeons, shrimp, snails, crayfish and they ALL love peas although I smush it through a mesh for the smaller mouthed fish. I wonder why peas are so readily accepted by fish?

Anyway if the fish won't eat the pea it wouldn't hurt to fast it for a few days before trying again.

CrashScreen
Nov 11, 2012

Was surprised to find everything okay when I woke up. I was expecting to be following the advice here, so thanks for posting all that anyway. I didn't realise it could resolve itself so quickly? I'm certainly glad though.

I notice everyone likes to share some photos of their fish. I've got one that I took on my phone to share with some friends, so I thought I'd drop it here too.



The older one is the silver one with the missing scales. I'm surprised she's made it this long, since I learned that she's lived in a bowl, 20gal, and then 5gal tank. Unfiltered tap water was used and she actually shared those tanks with other fish. I don't know if it's because she's ten years old or because of the stunted growth/boredom of a small tank, but she spends most of her time resting and only some time foraging or eating the plants. I think she has a problem with sight as well, but I've been watching and there's not been any physical signs of change to the eyes for the months I've been keeping them in check. As far as I know, the iris should be white so I wonder if that's related. I'm a dumbass with biology.

The younger, more orange one was actually yellow when we got him in May. It's because we got him that I learned a lot about fish, and quickly. We thought the black spot he originally had was a characteristic until more showed up. It turned out he didn't just have ammonia poisoning either, but fin rot as well, and this was all in the space of a couple of days. We managed to fix that, but most of his fins were almost entirely gone and we couldn't risk putting the two fish together. At the time, I wasn't really interested in the hobby, but the investment I put into saving the little guy was what brought me in. I'm still working learning a lot to make sure they're comfortable and happy, but I'd also like to contribute more to the thread than I have been able.

e: Forgot to add, I did the small water change. I'll continue to monitor their behaviour.

CrashScreen fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Sep 28, 2017

MasterControl
Jul 28, 2009

Lipstick Apathy
Has anyone kept shell dwellers? There's a video the king of diy did and it's perked my interested. Still new so I need to become more educated before buying but thought I'd ask here!

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


Yeah, shellies are great! I sadly lost my entire colony a few months back after a heater malfunction cooked the tank :cry:

I kept neolamprologus multifasciatus in a 40g breeder tank, with lots of escargot shells I bought on amazon. They thrived and bred like crazy for me, and were pretty dang hardy.




Dr_0ctag0n
Apr 25, 2015
Probation
Can't post for 4 days!
Yay snail infestation in my new tank! Am I part of the cool people club now?

Started a small planted 10g tank last sunday, got some assorted tiny floating plants to help filter water and look cool and the handful came with a ton of snail eggs attached to the floaters. Spent yesterday picking all the ones out with eggs but I've already noticed about 5 or so tiny little snails crawling around. Should I just kill them all or leave a few to eat algae etc.? Might build a trap tonight.

Facebook Aunt
Oct 4, 2008

wiggle wiggle




Dr_0ctag0n posted:

Yay snail infestation in my new tank! Am I part of the cool people club now?

Started a small planted 10g tank last sunday, got some assorted tiny floating plants to help filter water and look cool and the handful came with a ton of snail eggs attached to the floaters. Spent yesterday picking all the ones out with eggs but I've already noticed about 5 or so tiny little snails crawling around. Should I just kill them all or leave a few to eat algae etc.? Might build a trap tonight.

Random unknown snails should be killed. Some snails greatly prefer eating plants to eating algae, so your plants will be all ragged regardless of how much algae there is. Besides, you may never have an algae problem, if everything goes perfectly the plants will take up all the nutrients in the water and there won't be any left for algae.

MasterControl
Jul 28, 2009

Lipstick Apathy

Enos Cabell posted:

Yeah, shellies are great! I sadly lost my entire colony a few months back after a heater malfunction cooked the tank :cry:

I kept neolamprologus multifasciatus in a 40g breeder tank, with lots of escargot shells I bought on amazon. They thrived and bred like crazy for me, and were pretty dang hardy.






What did you do with the extra fry? Did nature take care of it? I was thinking of a 20 gallon long and trying to buy 2-3 adults and just waiting for the tank to explode. Also what about cleaning? Same as other tanks? Just seems a little harder due to the shells.

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


MasterControl posted:

What did you do with the extra fry? Did nature take care of it? I was thinking of a 20 gallon long and trying to buy 2-3 adults and just waiting for the tank to explode. Also what about cleaning? Same as other tanks? Just seems a little harder due to the shells.

I've got a LFS that lets me trade extra fry for store credit, but it took about a year from the initial batch of 8-9 before I had to thin out at all. You'll be able to keep a pretty good size colony in a 20 long with enough shells if you go species only tank.

During water changes I just used a turkey baster to blast and siphon detritus around the shells. Also, for the record I have really hard and high pH water straight out of the tap which is ideal for them, so that didn't hurt.

Dr. Garbanzo
Sep 14, 2010
Made a tiny bit of progress with the tank but it's progress none the less. I found a place to get black diamond sand for less than the cost of an arm and a leg so I'll pick some of that up along the way. The lights will be ordered next week and then there'll be rocks to get. I stopped in at one of the local shops today and picked up a pretty awesome piece of golden vine. A picture is below. It'll be a tricky tank to make work just because its 24 inches or 600mm deep all up.

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


I'd highly suggest looking into blasting powder as an alternative to black sand. It is chemically inert, you can get it in various sizes, and it costs like $5 for a 50lb bag. I spent a fortune on black sand for my first tank, and I think the blasting powder looks better.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

It's confusing since black diamond blasting grit shares the same name as black diamond aquarium sand. I couldn't get either here so I used fine brown silica turtle sand in my Cory tank. Later I got my hands on some New Zealand black iron sand which is extremely heavy and fine. The plants seem to love it but it looks more grey than black underwater. I still think it looks better than Tahitian moon sand which is too glittery looking and unnatural and is quite sharp. There are divided opinions on whether this is okay for corydoras or not, but it feels bad on my hands and I can't imagine what damage it would do if accidentally ingested.

How does blasting grit compare to Tahitian moon sand? Do you need to rinse it much?

Dr. Garbanzo
Sep 14, 2010
I've searched for black diamond blasting sand in Australia and it appears that it is not at all available and the blasting sand they sell in Australia has other stuff mixed in from what I've seen. I might check one of the tool supply places and see if they stock it.

snoo
Jul 5, 2007




my java moss (which supposedly shipped from like 3 states over) has been in transit for over two weeks now. it's dead isn't it :saddowns:

my first experience with getting java moss on ebay a couple years ago was great! but this seller sucks and it's holding me up with moving my tank. uggghhhhh

Dr. Garbanzo
Sep 14, 2010
After quite a search this is as close as I think is available in Australia. http://www.burwell.com.au/products/abrasives/black-beauty-furnace-slag/ difference between this stuff and black diamond blasting sand is that this is sourced from copper slag so it's a different mix of stuff. I may still end up with the sand that they had at the LFS yesterday because it didn't look super sharp in the tank. Iron sand is the other option but it's super expensive

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Copper slag is going to make keeping inverts alive a difficult task.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply