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Hi aquarium thread! I recently started up a one gallon Walstad-style bowl (https://dianawalstad.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/shrimprcs2017.pdf) of sorts in a large glass jar I had laying around. I haven’t added any shrimp yet since I’m new at all things aquarium and want to try to get the water and plants and such right before risking any little shrimp lives for my amusement. I think I’m ready to get some Neocaridina shrimp this weekend, but I’m still not sure because of two things. First, I’m concerned about the buildup of toxic gases in the substrate. Last week when I added some plants (but neglected to bleach-dip them), I also added two Malaysian Trumpet Snails (and a little ramshorn who snuck in on the plants). I got the MTS to aerate the soil, but every time I look in the jar, I can pretty easily spot the snails, which suggests they aren’t actually burrowing into the substrate. My jar isn’t as heavily planted as is probably ideal, and I did add a couple of rocks and a small piece of driftwood for decoration, which may be “suffocating” the soil even more than the half-inch of sand I have over it. I occasionally see small bubbles rising up in the jar, and while some of them are clearly coming from the plants, I suspect some are coming up from the substrate, too. Between the lack of anticipated aeration and these little bubbles, are shrimp likely to quickly die due to poison gas in the water? The second thing makes me feel slightly better about the first, and that is these strange little worms I can’t identify. Over the last 48 hours they appeared seemingly out of nowhere after a pretty large (75%-ish) water change and re-planting of plants that I hadn’t planted securely enough. They are very small and seem to vary in color from white to brown, and they don’t move fast enough for me to observe. They don’t have triangular heads, as near as I can tell, so I don’t think they’re planaria. Nevertheless, since I can’t ID them I can’t help but worry that they’ll parasitize any shrimp I put in there. Here’s the most in-focus picture I could manage.  They are mostly stuck to leaves and the driftwood, so I assume they are eating biofilm. If they’re eating biofilm, they probably wouldn’t be very interested in infecting shrimp, right? Also, if they’re alive at all, I don’t seem to have a poison gas problem either, right? After all, I’ve also noticed at least one baby MTS in there that I didn’t add myself, further suggesting that the water isn’t toxic. Am I on the right track here? What are these little worm things? Maybe nematodes (snail parasites? Just some nematodes from the organic potting soil?)? If they’re nematodes does that mean there’s not enough oxygen in the water?? I’m very new at this and basically have no confidence that I’m fit to keep a few shrimp. The water parameters themselves seem fine and steady, but maybe I should wait and see if these worm things die out?
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Oct 10, 2020 03:34
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SuperShmoe posted:(snip) The worms are perfectly normal earthworm relatives and come free with the dirt. They won't bother your shrimp. the stuff on the leaves look like snail poo. You probably will want to give it a couple of weeks for the roots to establish before you are out of the woods on off-gassing, but you can pretty much add them whenever. Poke the substrate with a bamboo skewer every day or so to release built up gasses until the roots have taken care of it. You may want to consider a small air pump to with a restriction valve to add some light air bubbling for water circulation.
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Oct 10, 2020 03:42
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ickna posted:The worms are perfectly normal earthworm relatives and come free with the dirt. They won't bother your shrimp. the stuff on the leaves look like snail poo. Thanks! I appreciate the reassurance. Also lol that I mistook poop for a possible parasite. I'll definitely get to poking and I'll check out maybe adding a restricted air stone.
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Oct 10, 2020 03:58
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Hydrogen sulfide (the toxic gas in question) is easily identifiable by the rotten-egg smell. A small air stone is not a bad idea- it ensures some water circulation occurs, and the air stone will also help by forcing some air exchange with the room so H2S doesn't build up in the confined space under the tank lid. In a situation with a completely sealed tank, that could possibly be an issue, but for most setups it shouldn't be a problem; the gas bubbles rise to the top too quick to diffuse into the water. I'm going on three years with a Walstad style tank and if I poke the soil it still releases gas bubbles, although far fewer than when I first started. It was my first Walstad tank, and I made the sand over the soil layer too thick. I've never had any livestock poisonings because of it, including burrowing assassin snails, but I'll occasionally pull up a plant to find that the roots are dead and have turned black. Luneshot fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Oct 10, 2020 |
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Oct 10, 2020 04:21
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Corte posted:I'm occasionally hearing a creaking sound coming from the area where my fish tank is located. It could be the air pump, solid wooden stand, lid, light, HoB filter or tank itself but haven't been able to pinpoint. I'm concerned that maybe one of the times I was scraping with a razor blade I might have nicked the sealant on a corner compromising the integrity of the tank, is that possible? If so is there any way to tell or precautions I could take? I think it's more likely that your stand or floor is creaking as your house shifts. A fish tank is a lot of weight in one spot and the stand you're using isn't specifically designed for that weight, although to my eye it looks like the wooden sides support the top properly. How thick is the wood of the top? Are you on wooden floors or a concrete slab? It's very unlikely to be damaged silicone and weakening tank, you'd have had to cut all the way through the silicone and got your blade in between where the glass panes meet to make a path for the water to get out, and that's not super easy to do. I've had enough leaking tanks over the years that I think you'd see a very small puddle around your tank first if the silicone did give way, which would warn you and give you plenty of time to do something about it.
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Oct 10, 2020 05:36
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Stoca Zola posted:I think it's more likely that your stand or floor is creaking as your house shifts. A fish tank is a lot of weight in one spot and the stand you're using isn't specifically designed for that weight, although to my eye it looks like the wooden sides support the top properly. How thick is the wood of the top? Are you on wooden floors or a concrete slab? It's very unlikely to be damaged silicone and weakening tank, you'd have had to cut all the way through the silicone and got your blade in between where the glass panes meet to make a path for the water to get out, and that's not super easy to do. I've had enough leaking tanks over the years that I think you'd see a very small puddle around your tank first if the silicone did give way, which would warn you and give you plenty of time to do something about it. Thanks Stoca! That gives me some peace of mind. The top I believe is the upper lip so an inch or two, it was originally a TV stand. I live in an apartment, I know the walls are concrete but unsure about the floors. I can hear my upstairs neighbours at times and my understanding is that wouldn't happen with concrete floors. the flooring is laminate or wood.
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Oct 10, 2020 05:47
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Oscars are moved into the 125 in the living room, 90 from my office is moved down to garage and 75 brought up into its spot. I am freaking exhausted now!
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Oct 11, 2020 02:34
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Enos Cabell posted:Oscars are moved into the 125 in the living room, 90 from my office is moved down to garage and 75 brought up into its spot. I am freaking exhausted now! Sounds like a shitload of work. Good job.
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Oct 11, 2020 08:36
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Resting Lich Face posted:Sounds like a shitload of work. Good job. Thanks, lot of work but it feels good to get it done. Got the 75 setup this morning and moved everyone from the 55 temp tank. Not 100% on the hardscape but it's a start.  Listed my old 90 bow for $150 a few hours ago, and already have a dude on the way to pick it up. Glad to turn it around that quick, now I can park in the garage again!
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Oct 11, 2020 21:21
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What kinda fish are those?
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Oct 11, 2020 22:19
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Red black stripe are denison barbs, then I have about 10 rainbow fish and a handful of glo-fish tetras. Just got done selling off the 90 bow, gonna miss it in a way but drat glad to get it moved out so quickly.
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Oct 11, 2020 22:34
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Ok so update on 5.5 months of nano-reef. Great Success: green star polyp Moderate success: Liam’s Clove Polyps, Mandarin Clove polyps, mean green zoanthids Mild success/keeping on: ricordea Florida, palythoas, oxide zoanthid, blue candy cane Wasted: Three types of montipora, “jungle fever” chalice (yeah, I have no idea either), cyphastrea (this one really hurt, as it had bleached badly back in June only to bounce back super strong with judicious care in July) Lessons learned: -ten gallons is a very small amount of water to have to balance the tonicity/salinity/etc of. A couple of bad weeks of sloppy-ish maintenance and the montipora colonies start to turn the corner and then you’re already on a one way ticket to a tank crash. -once one colony goes, watch water parameters so as to not poison whatever else is nearby. This probably cost me the cyphastrea, tbh. -it really sucks to watch your corals die before your eyes after you’ve started applying corrective measures. -plating montis and chalices look amazing and they’re relatively simple to make thrive provided you have the water volume to absorb any mistakes. But having to watch top-off levels every single day (every other day minimum) is a pain and eventually you will stress and kill anything more delicate than a softie in a nano if you aren’t 100% diligent. 10/10 would choose montis + chalices again in a larger tank. Maybe 20gal, maybe more like 40+
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Oct 11, 2020 23:17
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Donald and Suh are enjoying their spacious new digs. 
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Oct 12, 2020 02:57
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I really love seeing big fish with so much space 😍- how old are they and do they have much growing left to do?
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Oct 12, 2020 05:54
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Ok Comboomer posted:-plating montis and chalices look amazing and they’re relatively simple to make thrive provided you have the water volume to absorb any mistakes. But having to watch top-off levels every single day (every other day minimum) is a pain and eventually you will stress and kill anything more delicate than a softie in a nano if you aren’t 100% diligent. Get an auto top off system.
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Oct 12, 2020 08:21
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Stoca Zola posted:I really love seeing big fish with so much space 😍- how old are they and do they have much growing left to do? Thanks! They are just over a year and a half old, and growth has finally started to slow down. Right now they are about 11" from tip to tail, but I think they might have another few inches of growth left. Enos Cabell fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 12, 2020 14:40
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Debating on Kuhli noodles with my neon green rasboras and gobies or not.
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Oct 13, 2020 01:43
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RIP Deep Blue. Just 10 days after the other original Black Skirt. I had them for 6 years and 4 months. 
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Oct 13, 2020 02:59
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Enos Cabell posted:Donald and Suh are enjoying their spacious new digs. That’s awesome. I miss having Oscars, it’s great to see them in a spacious tank.
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Oct 13, 2020 03:13
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Get an auto top off system. I have a 10gal that I’m running on a shoestring budget but when I have a bigger tank in a more permanent home, absolutely.
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Oct 13, 2020 03:14
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:RIP Deep Blue. Just 10 days after the other original Black Skirt. I had them for 6 years and 4 months. Rip. I'm sorry!
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Oct 13, 2020 03:34
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VelociBacon posted:Rip. I'm sorry! Thanks. I actually feel pretty  6 years is a nice run for a tetra. I named her Deep Blue because she was the biggest black skirt I’ve seen, she was like the size of a half dollar. The only bigger ones I’ve seen are at the Pittsburgh Zoo which is amazing. The aquarium there is huge and has a lot of fish that popular in the aquarium trade except huge and in biotope aquariums.
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Oct 13, 2020 04:09
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:Thanks. I actually feel pretty
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Oct 13, 2020 18:41
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How do I feed vegetables to my fish? I cut up half a zuccini and a few baby carrots and boiled them for 5 minutes. I put them in ice water to take them down to room temp, fed the fish. The fish are visibly confused at such a thing. One of my gouramis is visibly upset with me and started spitting. They tried to take bites out of the zucchini and carrots after I cut them way smaller but they don't seem to be eating it for real.
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Oct 13, 2020 22:07
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Phi230 posted:How do I feed vegetables to my fish? That's basically it. Sounds like you have ungrateful aquarium habitants. Have you tried shrimp? Also it's sometimes a good idea to take the skin off the veg before cooking in case there is pesticide on it.
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Oct 13, 2020 22:10
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VelociBacon posted:That's basically it. Sounds like you have ungrateful aquarium habitants. Have you tried shrimp? Well actually it seems my entire colony of shrimp loves the food because I'm pretty sure every one of my 200+ shrimp living in this tank are swarming the vegetables now
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Oct 13, 2020 22:22
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VelociBacon posted:Sounds like you have ungrateful aquarium habitants. LOL!!! That one got me good. Speaking of shrimp, how many generations can you go without adding new before they get all Hapsburg on ya? I started with 5 Cherry and 3 Blue Velvet Neo's about 3 months ago and I estimate I've got 75 now in my 10 gal. It took about 6 weeks to really get going, but I'm very surprised at how quickly the population grew. I know it's not how genes work, but I'm still hoping for a purple scrimp to pop up.
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Oct 14, 2020 04:26
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I tried the razor on a stick algae remover and my hands lost. So now I have a magnafloat in the mail to me. I overestimated my dexterity, and boy did I pay for it. I kind of want yellow, blue or green scrimps. Sadly, my tap water is too hard(?) to really keep crystal shrimp (The red and black with stripes).
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Oct 14, 2020 06:47
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Aerofallosov posted:I kind of want yellow, blue or green scrimps. Sadly, my tap water is too hard(?) to really keep crystal shrimp (The red and black with stripes). Get a small enough tank where you can reasonably use bottled water?
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Oct 14, 2020 06:53
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I think so. There's that ebi tank for scrimps. I just need to make room on my desk. Maybe I'll check prices around Christmas.
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Oct 14, 2020 06:54
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Aerofallosov posted:I kind of want yellow, blue or green scrimps. Sadly, my tap water is too hard(?) to really keep crystal shrimp (The red and black with stripes). You can get neocaridina in yellow, blue and green and they are okay in hard water I thought? I'm thinking about converting my kitchen counter tank to shrimp and plants only, and moving the kuhlies out to a much bigger sand bottom tank so I can keep more of them. I think I'd need a fish trap to get the loaches out though, there is zero chance of me netting them. I've started moving my red sided barbs out of the tank that they colonised because they've really overfilled it, so maybe I should move all my small rasbora and kuhlies into there once it's freed up. The barbs seem to love the 5 foot and having room to swim even if they don't have the same kind of cover to hide in as they did in the colony tank. I've now got 12 in my 3 foot tank and 8 in my 4 foot sterbai tank, 9 in the 5 foot and I have no idea how many left in the little 100lt tank. It is pretty nice getting free fish but I just wish they'd calm it down a bit.
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Oct 14, 2020 08:38
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Aerofallosov posted:I kind of want yellow, blue or green scrimps. Sadly, my tap water is too hard(?) to really keep crystal shrimp (The red and black with stripes). I have hard water and the Blue Velvet Neo's do just fine! I've never attempted yellow or green though.
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Oct 14, 2020 19:14
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 My Madagascar Lace plant flowered! Its a Halloween miracle!
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Oct 16, 2020 19:12
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Phi230 posted:
That is so cool! Congrats! How long did it take to flower? I've seen just the leaves before, but hadn't a clue that it did that.
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Oct 17, 2020 06:07
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candystarlight posted:That is so cool! Congrats! Ive had the plant for almost a year and it's been sending out dozens of flower stalks in that time but one finally flowered
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Oct 17, 2020 15:42
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That's awesome. I think my new plan is either the Dennerle or Ebi shrimp tank on my desk while I have a cool dorf cichlid in the maintank. I feel sort of bad realizing I wouldn't see them much in the tank, or would like, red cacutoides are cool. They keep saying experts only on the German Rams. Their colors are neat, even wild type. Or just put scrimp in and keep small fishies. I want to add some snails, cories, maybe kuhli loaches and at least one not-on-the-bottom guy. Oh my gosh, endlers are cute. Maybe I'll just keep my tiny, peaceful friends. Aerofallosov fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Oct 18, 2020 |
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Oct 18, 2020 04:26
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Pretty sure one of my Bosemani rainbowfish killed the other one. Yesterday the one was harassing the other more than I have ever seen, nipping at fins and ramming face first into the other. The one getting harassed i guess tried to hide in some driftwood and got stuck, and I had to pull it out and I think it lost some scales on its head from struggling (or the rescue, I don't know). The rest of the rainbowfish in the tank seem fine. The problem is, the poor little guy isn't fully dead yet. It can't swim on its own, his fins are all torn up, just floats upside-down, but his mouth and gills are still moving. Fish I've lost previously I've all found dead already. Is it more humane to just pull him out of the water and end it, or let it run its course?
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Oct 20, 2020 17:23
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TheAlmightyFrog posted:Pretty sure one of my Bosemani rainbowfish killed the other one. Yesterday the one was harassing the other more than I have ever seen, nipping at fins and ramming face first into the other. The one getting harassed i guess tried to hide in some driftwood and got stuck, and I had to pull it out and I think it lost some scales on its head from struggling (or the rescue, I don't know). The rest of the rainbowfish in the tank seem fine. You can euthanize him humanely by putting him in a cup of water with clove oil. https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-is-the-most-humane-way-to-euthanase-aquarium-fish/
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Oct 20, 2020 17:47
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ickna posted:You can euthanize him humanely by putting him in a cup of water with clove oil. https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-is-the-most-humane-way-to-euthanase-aquarium-fish/ Unfortunately, by the time I got back to the tank after work calls, it was too late. No more gill movement. I've had these rainbows for over a year and half and never saw that kind of behavior out of these two before yesterday. Some of the males can be pushy when they show their colors in the morning trying to get it on, but this was a different kind of aggressive, only specifically going after the one fish and leaving all the rest alone. The rest of the tank seems happy and healthy, at least.
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Oct 20, 2020 22:31
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Got fish and an algae problem!
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Oct 28, 2020 01:37
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