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Stoca Zola posted:I really like turning vegetable scraps from my kitchen into live fresh protein food for my fish (although in my case it's grindal worms). No onion or citrus though, I seem to remember something like that for compost worms so I'm guessing the same for grindals. Where'd you get your grindal worms, and what do you grow them in? I looked around online and could only find white worms which are supposed to be bigger. They're great for my tetra but borderline too big for my danios. I'm growing them in a Tupperware with potting soil and feeding bread with yogurt and yeast. No crashes yet...
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Mar 1, 2020 18:06
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Enos Cabell posted:Did you check the impeller on the pump? I get sand in mine sometimes. I guess I'll have to break it down later and do a full inspection. Secondary issue: There's tons of shrimp living in both my filters. How do I stop this and how do I save them? The fluval FX4 intake is like this big grate, do I just put pantyhose over it or something?
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Mar 1, 2020 18:28
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Yeah you can try to find some open cell foam to put around it but pantyhose works.
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Mar 1, 2020 18:42
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Where'd you get your grindal worms, and what do you grow them in? I am in Australia and I had to get them posted from a fish store in another state. The difference with grindals is they tolerate warm temperatures a lot better than white worms, I think white worms just aren't an option here. I grow mine on moist coconut coir peat, I was watching a few youtubers for ideas and Simply Bettas grows hers on coir and feeds them baby cereal, David Ramsey grows his on potting mix and feeds puppy kibble. They both have fairly successful colony growth and I think that is from consistent feeding and watering and restarting colonies as they start fouling their substrate. I have kitten kibble that I feed mine and I alternate damp kibble for protein and an oatmeal/veg/sometimes spirulina powder slurry. The method I use for harvesting is to place the food directly on the substrate, place plastic craft mesh over that as a buffer layer, and then flat plastic takeaway container lids as the top layer. This layer of plastic both keeps the moisture in, and provides a fairly clean surface to harvest wandering worms from without disturbing the colony too much. Harvesting worms this way is as simple as gently washing the surface with a pipette of water (or turkey baster if I'm in a hurry) into a widemouthed glass container. I am using what I think must be whiskey tumblers to collect my wormy water mix. I more often than not am collecting juvenile sized worms, it really doesn't take long to get worms about the size of microworms forming in layers if you are feeding the right foods and I have used these as substitutes for microworms when my colony of those crashed. Then the size varies up to adult size, and I really try not to harvest too many adult worms at once or the colony crashes. Worms in water are easy to separate, the largest ones sink and if the water is swirled, will clump in the centre. The juvenile worms will stay suspended and can be removed for feeding tiny fish. I often return the adult worms to the colony so they can continue to breed for me. Or if I am feeding larger fish, I slurp up the clump with my turkey baster and return the water and baby worms to the colony. I have 9 tubs going at once in a re-purposed toy storage rack and really I am overdue to clean out the coir and start some fresh clean colonies. I've had a lot more success with larger colonies as they retain moisture for longer and take longer to become uninhabitable for the worms. Feeding high protein food makes the substrate get soiled a lot faster than just feeding veg and oats. David Ramsey mentions in his video that grindals get flies and do they ever - I was having a lot of trouble keeping my containers free of flies without also suffocating the worms. In the end I gave up and I now collect the fly larva and feed those to my fish as well - my big rasbora absolutely loves them more than any other food, and my rainbows seem pretty fond of them too. Interesting, looks like David Ramsey feeds bread/yoghurt/yeast to his white worms too, but still kibble to his grindals. I wonder if they have different dietary needs or if that is more of a habitual thing? Phi230 posted:The fluval FX4 intake is like this big grate, do I just put pantyhose over it or something? I use a mesh media bag over mine, I'm holding the mouth of the bag around the inlet pipe over the grate using a velcro cabletie type fastener. I tried pantyhose but it clogged pretty fast.
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Mar 1, 2020 20:20
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I do bread + yogurt + yeast for my white worms based on David Ramsey's video. But I haven't been doing it long enough to see a culture age and crash. I didn't start with many worms and it seems to take much longer for a culture to get rocking than microworms. I had a problem with flies getting into my microworms, and I solved it by leaving one of those green abrasive pads (like you'd have on a kitchen sponge) over the air holes. I fed the maggots to the fish too, but I figured my boyfriend is being patient enough with my white worm and microworm cultures, plus the baby danio tank, plus the other tanks. Flies is probably pushing it.
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Mar 1, 2020 21:34
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More cephalopod jobs! In addition to the supervisory position I posted a while back, OIST is hiring two techs to take care of cephalopods as well. https://www.oist.jp/careers/research-support-staff-cephalopod-support These jobs require significantly less experience, and I reckon that someone with a lot of marine aquarium experience might have a shot even though it says "cephalopod research and husbandry".
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Mar 3, 2020 08:33
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Had to run get co2 tanks refilled and stopped by the local fish store on the way back for some frozen food. Ended up bringing home a black night ram, 8 melanistius and 6 bronze cories as well. 
Enos Cabell fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Mar 5, 2020 |
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Mar 5, 2020 01:28
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Is there anything I can get that will kill algae but not moss?
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Mar 5, 2020 08:03
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Reduced photoperiod or dimmer lighting? It does depend on the algae though.
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Mar 5, 2020 12:38
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Anyone have any experience with freshwater PomPom Crabs? Was thinking about getting some.
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Mar 5, 2020 20:18
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Stoca Zola posted:Reduced photoperiod or dimmer lighting? It does depend on the algae though. Tried that, it just seemed to kill all my other plants. I’m actually thinking of redoing the tank, it’s using the standard aquarium gravel and I wonder if plants might do better in something finer like blasting sand or crushed quartz sand.
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Mar 6, 2020 12:57
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Someone on Facebook told me not to use pool filter sand because it's *gasp* ground up glass; ie no sharp edges because it's ground up, chemically neutral because it's glass. I'm not really sure what point they were trying to make. The other stuff I've heard about getting rid of algae is to add more healthy fast growing plants and dose fertiliser so they can outcompete the algae.
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Mar 6, 2020 13:18
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Getting healthier plants is the main reason I want to redo the tank, because I figure they should soak up more of any excess nitrogen in there and reduce the amount of algae.
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Mar 6, 2020 14:40
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duckweed will cut down on light and soak up nutrients and you'll have a ton of duckweed.
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Mar 6, 2020 23:34
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Duckweed is loving magic and also a pain in the loving rear end. It’s great stuff, but man I wish I had chosen plants that were just a little bit bigger and a little less clingy. My arm is completely covered in it whenever I need to reach into the tank. Anybody have experience with Azolla? How does it compare to duckweed?
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Mar 7, 2020 08:02
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I was hoping to avoid that stuff because I've heard it's an absolute nightmare to get rid of. I'm thinking of ordering some Elatine gratioloides and Glossostigma elatinoides to hopefully form a big mat over most of the bottom of the tank and soak up nutrients. The fish might need to live in the esky for a bit while the plants get established though.
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Mar 7, 2020 08:16
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My CO2 regulator corroded and upped to full straight-through flow, and gassed everything in my tank. Everything. Even the substrate worms died. Sooo, now I have a tank that I can drain and start "properly". I have Monte Carlo coming in. wat do fake edit: i am super pissed off about this
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Mar 9, 2020 16:22
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Man, that really sucks sorry to hear it insta. I nearly gassed my rainbow tank a few months back, luckily my wife was home and called to ask if it was a problem that all my fish were all at the surface sucking air. I added a Milwaukee pH controller to my setup a month ago, and it does a great job of keeping the co2 in check and is nice for peace of mind.
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Mar 9, 2020 17:10
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Enos Cabell posted:Man, that really sucks sorry to hear it insta. I nearly gassed my rainbow tank a few months back, luckily my wife was home and called to ask if it was a problem that all my fish were all at the surface sucking air. I added a Milwaukee pH controller to my setup a month ago, and it does a great job of keeping the co2 in check and is nice for peace of mind. In this case, there was nothing that would have stopped it. The solenoid was unplugged entirely, but had instead corroded through or jammed open (I can't tell yet). My Chinesium kit finally died after ~ 10 years I guess.
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Mar 9, 2020 17:14
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Oh drat, that doubly sucks then. Now I'm paranoid about my setup again too!
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Mar 9, 2020 17:29
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My kid surprised me with a betta and it's really the worst fish ever. I moved him from one of those lousy Petsmart all-in-one tanks to a 10 gallon I could customize, but all he does is ignore the almond leaves and betta log I got him and hide behind the water heater. I'm surprised he hasn't burnt himself yet. He's also lighter on top and gets darker on the bottom so it looks like he's dead and floating upside down all the time. Just a really awful fish so he'll probably live for years.insta posted:Even the substrate worms died. What kind of worms were those? Is there a worm that can both live in your substrate and also be a food source? I've been feeding my puffers frozen bloodworms, but I'd like something that occupies their hunting instincts. They appear to be ignoring the dozens of Malaysian Trumpet snails that come out every night when it gets dark and terrorizing the tetras instead.
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Mar 9, 2020 18:07
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Krispy Wafer posted:My kid surprised me with a betta and it's really the worst fish ever. I moved him from one of those lousy Petsmart all-in-one tanks to a 10 gallon I could customize, but all he does is ignore the almond leaves and betta log I got him and hide behind the water heater. I'm surprised he hasn't burnt himself yet. He's also lighter on top and gets darker on the bottom so it looks like he's dead and floating upside down all the time. Just a really awful fish so he'll probably live for years. I dunno what kind of worms they were. They were long, thin worms that lived in the substrate  They seemed harmless.
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Mar 9, 2020 18:18
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Hello aquarium thread. This is my new reef tank. Current population: 1. He's doing just fine and my levels are spot on so I'll be getting him a friend this weekend. SixPabst fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Mar 9, 2020 |
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Mar 9, 2020 20:34
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wow v rude to the snails and corals (they're all cute)
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Mar 10, 2020 03:08
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SixPabst posted:Hello aquarium thread. This is my new reef tank. Current population: 1. Clownfish are just great 
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Mar 12, 2020 20:06
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I love the idea of a small reef tank like that. How many gallons is it?
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Mar 12, 2020 20:54
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The tank is a Waterbox 20 gallon. I couldn't be happier with it. Build is really solid and it looks really sleek.Resting Lich Face posted:Clownfish are just great I got one more and a couple more corals! The thing about fish is they don't pose well. Sorry about the corner shot.  And another shot with the new coral and both fish  Synthbuttrange posted:wow v rude to the snails and corals (they're all cute) v rude indeed i'm sorry. I also got 3 more turbo snails to deal with the diatoms. They are extremely hard workers and did a very good job cleaning the sand and glass overnight. SixPabst fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Mar 12, 2020 |
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Mar 12, 2020 23:24
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Picked up some discus today while retail stores are still open, figure we can all ride out QT together.
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Mar 17, 2020 01:08
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I did a rosy barb experiment last week - trying to work out if my idea that I picked up from somewhere that black pigmented fins = male, no pigment = female is true. I'm down to only 3 of my own geriatric rosy barb school from the 2014/15 breeding season but I have 2 younger fish that were unwanted rescues, one has the pigmentation and the other does not. So I moved them to a spare tank for a couple of days to see if anything would result. I set it up with bulky substrate, a spawning mop and an upside down filter tray as means to capture safely any eggs produced. I didn't see any breeding activity so I took the fish out after 3 days but as of Friday a ton of tiny fry emerged in the tank. It doesn't prove anything really since I didn't have other fish combinations to compare with, but it does provide some supporting evidence at least. The fry are too small to get the camera to focus and I haven't been able to get a pic but it's been really cool to see their behaviour and have a good idea how old they are, unlike last time when I bred them by accident. They are extreme eating machines, hunting and grazing determinedly right from the start. They are already twice the size they were when I first saw them. Definitely a very easy fish to breed and raise, if you can get your hands on a female. The next part of the experiment is to see whether the neon rosy barb supermale genetic quirk is present, it should result in only 8% female fry instead of 50/50. I'm not sure why this is true, possibly the result of whatever hybridisation or inbreeding occurred to get the now common golden coloration compared to the typical bland silver colour of natural rosy barbs. I can only guess how many fry I've got but I think it must be close to 50 and so I'm expecting to only see 4 or so with unpigmented fins. I've complained in here many times about how difficult I've found it to maintain a pond but I'm determined to give it another try so by the time these barbs are big enough to need larger lodgings I expect to have finished setting up a pond for them. If not, they can go in the 4 foot sterbai tank in the lounge room. It's been a few years since I raised any egg scatterer fry so this is also a practise run for breeding some red sided barbs which I'd like to do at some point. The fish I got a few weeks ago are all healthy and the rasboras have settled in well, but the barbs are extremely wild and skittish still. They have a lot of susswassertang to hide in which is helping, and they do eat well, but not if they can see me watching. The skittish way they swim and graze at the sand reminds me of a sand feeding marine fish. I can see a few males that have coloured up very nicely with a red band and I think they'd go very nicely in my 5 foot tank.
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Mar 18, 2020 06:38
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My quarantine project is nuking the loving Dinos in my display tank and getting my LPS moved up. SPS shopping trip if disasterbug allows it.
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Mar 18, 2020 16:47
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Enos Cabell posted:Picked up some discus today while retail stores are still open, figure we can all ride out QT together. How big is your quarantine? Putting one together and just about to buy the tank while petco has its sale going on. Also, my big 200 gal is shipping in 2 days.
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Mar 20, 2020 01:58
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Anybody have any idea where I can find a nice, fancy looking stand for a 75g? All I can find are the cheap pressboard stands. I'd prefer hardwood. I don't really wanna make my own but I can if i have to
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Mar 20, 2020 16:21
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Resting Lich Face posted:How big is your quarantine? Putting one together and just about to buy the tank while petco has its sale going on. It's an old 55g tank I had laying around. And very cool on the new 200g! Can't wait to see it
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Mar 20, 2020 17:24
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This is a long shot but do any UK goons happen to have any pest snails they are in the process of getting rid of? One of my pea puffers isn’t showing any interest in bloodworm (live or frozen) or brine shrimp. The second she sees a snail she is all over it. None of the fish shops local to me have got any in there tanks...I guess the corona toilet roll panic buyers are pea puffer/loach owners as well! If you’re around the Greater Manchester area I can come and collect or will pay postage.
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Mar 20, 2020 22:19
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I can't help with snails (wrong hemisphere) but dried krill might work if you haven't tried that yet?
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Mar 21, 2020 03:56
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Stoca Zola posted:I can't help with snails (wrong hemisphere) but dried krill might work if you haven't tried that yet? Thank you I will give it a go.
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Mar 21, 2020 12:15
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I have a herp (eastern painted turtle) question, but this will be a much more helpful thread. I have two juvenile eastern painted turtles housed individually. During the virus situation they will be moving to their own 17 gallon tubs. Each tub's gonna have an off-the-shelf basking dock, a light, and maybe be roughly 30-50% filled with water. No substrate. It'll be somewhat cozy but more than enough room for each turtle to really stretch out and move around, and way better than the equivalent 20 gal aquarium which is the other option that currently exists. Certainly way better than either of the little bastards deserve  . I'm kidding.My question is about filtration. I'd really rather not do daily water changes so I'm looking at filters that I can get cheap, fast (on chewy.com). In the past I've done those cheap-rear end Whisper immersion filters with some temporary success in bigger tubs, but given the size I'm working with I'd like to maximize swimming space. If cost/flow/floorspace weren't huge concerns I'd do canister filters easy, but seeing as they are--my last option remains the HOB. It feels wasteful, but at $11-15 a pop I think I can try a pair of either Marineland Penguin 100s or 150s and hope they last me a few weeks. I'll still be doing frequent (weekly or twice weekly) water changes and probably partial changes with every feeding. I'm not sure which model I should go with. With turtles the advice on filters is always "err on the side of bigger" and even "best to have twice the filter for the amount of water in the system". At the same time, you don't want to overpower the animal with intake water flow or a massive discharge, especially in a small enclosure where the filter might make an entire area uncomfortable/dangerous for the animal to use. The price difference is <$5 but I want to make sure I maximize cleaning power while keeping physical clutter and mechanical disruption to a minimum. I also wouldn't want the filter to be too weak to handle the task. I'm imagining between 8-14 gallons of water in each enclosure.
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Mar 21, 2020 14:46
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^^^^swung by petsmart and looked at them both in person. Currently erring on the side of the smaller 100 model unless somebody gives me a reason not to. The 150 seems like it would fit but it’s a much wider unit and I’m concerned about it being too much filter for the tub
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Mar 21, 2020 16:41
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Is feeding in a separate container something you could do? Might help segregate the worst of the mess and help keep their regular housing cleaner.
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Mar 21, 2020 19:35
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Stoca Zola posted:Is feeding in a separate container something you could do? Might help segregate the worst of the mess and help keep their regular housing cleaner. I’ve done it, I’m still gonna need a filter, if only for the sake of flexibility. In the turtles’ ideal world, they’d get fed early in the day—they’d have ample time to graze and munch (maybe twenty min to half an hour) then they might get up and bask for a bit before pooping, or they might poop and then bask. Probably eat some more. Then poop if not done so already. Then maybe some more basking. As long as the turtles are at minimum pooping in their water, it’s gonna foul up in 48 hrs or less and will need changing and/or filtration. I’ve long done the ‘separate feeding container’ thing with them and frankly everybody hates it. I either have to deal with filling/draining/cleaning two buckets or feed them-back-to-back. So then it’s like an hour’s worth of minding them- more if you want them to poop outside of the enclosure. It totally interferes with their desired/biologically optimal feeding-and-basking ways. I’d much rather feed them in their enclosures and come back and strain/scoop out the leftovers and/or do a partial water change. Ends up being kinda the same work but Idk, I’m open to advice.
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Mar 21, 2020 20:55
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