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So here's a pic of Gary the cray at work. It was drabbing out into hues of brown, small claws, no obvious male parts that I could notice. Its brother reached sexual maturity about three weeks back, so figured Gary must be there and just turning out to be female. This was after it's last molt April 26th I come in this morning to find Gary molted again overnight and this is what sits in the tank now. It's hiding too much to really look but christ Gary went blue again and has some drat big claws 
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May 11, 2022 12:14
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| # ? May 26, 2024 08:45 |
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Hello thread! I'm after some advice on transporting fish, I have danios, gourami and a dwarf pleco and am moving house in a couple of months so trying to prep. Its going to be an 8 hour drive with them, what's the best way to do this?
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May 11, 2022 17:43
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Are you moving somewhere where a tank is set up and ready to go for them at the other end of the journey? Or are you moving the fish and tanks at the same time? Fish are posted around in bags of water all the time, taking easily longer than 8 hours. To me, the important part is the continuity of life support at the end of the journey. I’d transport fish in a bigger container (maybe a cooler to maintain temperature) that could act as temporary lodgings if the tank needs to be set up too. Also if transporting tanks it’s good to have a contingency plan in place, in case the tank breaks during transport - even if it’s something like a big plastic tub or a kiddy pool that you can get treated water, heater and filter running in.
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May 11, 2022 18:56
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Don't people get a cheap air stone and run it from the car's cigarette power with an inverter for trips that long?
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May 11, 2022 19:17
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VelociBacon posted:Don't people get a cheap air stone and run it from the car's cigarette power with an inverter for trips that long? Yup, that works great. They also make D battery powered air pumps, but those are noisy AF.
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May 11, 2022 19:21
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Enos Cabell posted:Yup, that works great. They also make D battery powered air pumps, but those are noisy AF. There are usb powered air pumps now too. I know aquarium co-op sells one of their own brand, but I'm pretty sure I've seen others like on amazon.
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May 11, 2022 20:03
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JuffoWup posted:There are usb powered air pumps now too. I know aquarium co-op sells one of their own brand, but I'm pretty sure I've seen others like on amazon. I use one of these. Works well as an emergency backup option too, because you can run one for a long time off a wall charging lithium ion phone battery charger. I had some guy drive a car into an electrical box this winter and ran two of these to keep the tank water circulating somewhat while also keeping my bio media alive in a bucket.
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May 11, 2022 20:11
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Warbadger posted:I use one of these. Works well as an emergency backup option too, because you can run one for a long time off a wall charging lithium ion phone battery charger. They also now have a larger (usb) pump that has a battery in it that's supposed to keep it running for 6 hours if you lose power (or 12 if you put it in power saving mode).
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May 11, 2022 21:39
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Be sure not to feed the fish at least a day or two before you move, you don't need that junk filing their water. Also have you already done a check on the water quality at your new location? Are the water parameters like pH close to the same? Be sure to also keep some prime on hand.
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May 11, 2022 22:21
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You can also get a couple of five gallon buckets with lids and save some of the old tank water, so you're not filling the tank completely with new water. My previous method of moving my old 20 gallon tank: 1. Don't feed them for a couple of days ahead of time. Have three five gallon buckets. 2. Day of move, fill one bucket with about four gallons of water. Put fish in there. Loosely cover to keep it dark and put it in the car with a blanket wrapped around it. Your goal is to avoid sudden temperature changes and to muffle vibrations. Use a power converter to run an air stone on one side of the bucket. 3. Fill other buckets with about four gallons of water. You can put any plants or decor you want to keep wet in these buckets. 4. Drain the tank itself as much as possible. If you're using an HOB filter, put the filter cartridge in a bag to keep it moist. Have help to move it out to the car. Make sure the glass is protected by a blanket or something that will keep anything from banging into it. 5. On arrival, set up the tank using the water from the old setup. Run it for an hour or so before adding the fish back. That way you can make sure nothing go cracked in moving, and the tank gets a chance to settle a bit. While you're doing this, add about a couple cups of water every 20 minutes or so to the fish bucket. If it gets too full just dump the extra into the tank. 6. Return the fish to their tank home. Give them an hour or so, then feed them.
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May 12, 2022 17:44
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Shine posted:My betta follows me around when I walk around his tank, and does a little wiggle dance near the feeding hole when he is hungry. If he misses a piece of food, I can put my finger near it (against the outside of the tank) and he'll follow me and look for the food. When he's not adorably fluttering about, he is resting on his leaf hammock. He has a wonderful personality and I love him That sounds completely adorable and awesome.  I want a betta again one of these days.
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May 13, 2022 07:17
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Thanks for all the advice on moving! We'll be moving the tank at the same time, luckily I've got a van that'll have plenty of space for buckets of fish and water!
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May 13, 2022 11:29
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my son has been asking me almost every day now if we can get an axolotl cause he got some in minecraft and now hes watching axolotl videos on youtube he is 7 so obviously he isn't gonna be the one taking care of it
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May 15, 2022 15:08
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Bonster posted:You can also get a couple of five gallon buckets with lids and save some of the old tank water, so you're not filling the tank completely with new water. My previous method of moving my old 20 gallon tank: This is the way. I’ve moved tanks up to and including a 55g corner reef aquarium this way. It’s labor intensive, but about as low-impact on the critters as you can get.
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May 15, 2022 15:26
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The Nastier Nate posted:my son has been asking me almost every day now if we can get an axolotl cause he got some in minecraft and now hes watching axolotl videos on youtube Doesn't sound like a good reason to get a pet to be honest. e: I think most aquariums (like the big ones) have axo's. Maybe you could take him to the aquarium and he could get it out of his system.
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May 15, 2022 18:13
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I heard minecraft was the reason more axies were being brought into the hobby (and dying shortly after). I shouldn't be surprised; how many loving morons wanted a Nemo fish after Finding Nemo came out, totally missing the point of the movie?
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May 15, 2022 18:53
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The Nastier Nate posted:my son has been asking me almost every day now if we can get an axolotl cause he got some in minecraft and now hes watching axolotl videos on youtube I mean, if you want a cool aquarium pet axolotls are actually pretty great, quite affordable, and relatively low stress as far as large amphibians go. The biggest difficulty you’ll have is probably keeping the water cold enough in the summer. But if you’re ok having the tank in an air conditioned room the whole time it’s hot out and/or running a chiller you should be fine. Just from a mentality and ethics standpoint, I’m against the whole idea of making a pet “belong” to a child, especially one under the age of like twelve. It usually ends up sacrificing the well-being, safety, quality of life, and eventual longevity of the animal on the altar of “teaching skills + maturity” that will only really be properly learned and developed when the child grows up. Pets should belong to the family and be treated as a family responsibility. They should not be siloed off in a little kid’s bedroom to be traumatized and neglected to death. Adults should lead by example in the care and proper treatment of family pets, and incorporate their kids in that process, not yell at their ADHD third grader about whether or not they fed Bubbles for the umpteenth time 2-3x/week. But if you’re cool with having an axie/axies, sure by all means get a family salamander.
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May 15, 2022 18:54
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Ok Comboomer posted:Just from a mentality and ethics standpoint, I’m against the whole idea of making a pet “belong” to a child, especially one under the age of like twelve. It usually ends up sacrificing the well-being, safety, quality of life, and eventual longevity of the animal on the altar of “teaching skills + maturity” that will only really be properly learned and developed when the child grows up. Learning useful parenting skills here in the aquaria thread. Legit filing this away.
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May 15, 2022 19:02
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We can legit lead you through the proper care and keeping of an Axolotl. HOWEVER, it is like a 12-15 year commitment. If you've managed to keep a kid alive? You can probably keep an Axolotl alive. There are def a few people on here who know how to keep them and have bred them. But next week your kid might suddenly decide that tomatoes are more interesting. However... there is nothing wrong with checking PetCo for $1/gallon sales, keeping an eye on FB Marketplace/Craigslist for tanks and equipment. Even if you don't end up with an Axie you can still rock out with a terrarium/paludarium/aquarium.
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May 15, 2022 19:51
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Ok Comboomer posted:I mean, if you want a cool aquarium pet axolotls are actually pretty great, quite affordable, and relatively low stress as far as large amphibians go. my son still can figure out "don't put your shirt on backwards" so i sure as hell am not getting him an exotic pet I'm still in the middle of cycling my 75 gallon, but if his axolotl fad doesn't die out in like a year, i was maybe considering a 20 gallon long tank in an empty corner in the living room i have for an axolotl, for myself to take care of The Nastier Nate fucked around with this message at 19:55 on May 15, 2022 |
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May 15, 2022 19:53
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A 20g long + some Triops and a sponge filter would be pretty cool, you could get plants from the store or nature? There are ways to dip your toes into keeping aquatic stuff that doesn't require a lot of finicky temperature regulation. I am biased as i run no heaters or chillers on my tanks.
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May 15, 2022 19:56
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I'm getting a small amount of some kind of dark string algae in my tank. It's showing up near exclusively on leaves that have water flowing over them constantly from the spray bar. The spray bar is pushing right across the surface of the water so that's also where the most light is available, but the spray bar doesn't span the whole tank and the algae isn't showing up where the spray bar isn't. Is there some other orientation for the spray bar that would be better, or should I just come by and scrape the algae off every now and then? It doesn't seem to be super aggressive, but I wouldn't enjoy waking up to find it all over all of my plants.
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May 17, 2022 13:44
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Wallet posted:I'm getting a small amount of some kind of dark string algae in my tank. It's showing up near exclusively on leaves that have water flowing over them constantly from the spray bar. The spray bar is pushing right across the surface of the water so that's also where the most light is available, but the spray bar doesn't span the whole tank and the algae isn't showing up where the spray bar isn't. Is there some other orientation for the spray bar that would be better, or should I just come by and scrape the algae off every now and then? It doesn't seem to be super aggressive, but I wouldn't enjoy waking up to find it all over all of my plants. Sounds like green hair algae, which loves to attach to soft leaves. It's likely showing up because of the light and not the spray bar, so don't worry about reorienting. Just scrape it off and reduce your lighting schedule. If you can, try adding a timer to your light so you can break up the photoperiods. Doing so makes it more difficult for the algae to grow but has no negative impact on the plants. For example, I have had success cutting down GHA in my 10gal's by running 4 hrs on, 2 hrs off, and 4 hrs on again. In my 125 the Siamese Algae Eater and Amano's do all the hard work for me, but I still run a similar lighting schedule.
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May 17, 2022 20:49
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I'm thinking of redoing 2 of my 55s; they have albino yellow labs in both, and I think all I have are males left. Can't find a source for them online anymore, but some locals might be interested in getting the group. If so, whatever should I do for these tanks? Was thinking of cories and moving some longfin plecos to one, but would a 55 be pushing it for bronze cories in terms of depth?
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May 18, 2022 02:29
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Cowslips Warren posted:I'm thinking of redoing 2 of my 55s; they have albino yellow labs in both, and I think all I have are males left. Can't find a source for them online anymore, but some locals might be interested in getting the group. If so, whatever should I do for these tanks? Was thinking of cories and moving some longfin plecos to one, but would a 55 be pushing it for bronze cories in terms of depth? Might be. I had some in my big tank and they seemed a lot happier when I moved them into a 40 long.
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May 18, 2022 04:06
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After 9 months or so of Amazon puffer ownership it's looking like I need to perform a bit of dentistry. Two of them are getting food stuck in there and the third looks like a little beaver. Anyone have any experience with this? I'm terrified and have been dreading this day since I bought them.
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May 19, 2022 03:19
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When it comes to putting driftwood into a tank how long do you boil it for? I have heard 1-2 hours to sanitize it and on the other hand until the water runs clear.
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May 20, 2022 02:29
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Update on marine tank: the green brittle star remains the largest and hungriest mofo in this tank, vaulting around like a drat octopus. The goby, still unidentified, likes to scoot all around the water line when he sees me because he knows I will hand feed him. Right now he's currently chasing around to pick up scraps from the pellets I tossed in and the brittle star is enveloping/ wacky arm flailing inflatable tube man gripping. I can see why most people would not have a dude like this in a reef tank, or with any kind of small fish. But drat if he isnt one of the coolest pets I've ever owned.
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May 20, 2022 03:04
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4 days ago I went out and picked up 3 pea puffers for my 10gal. This aquarium houses 4 nerites, 5 cherry shrimp, and now the pea puffers. Nitrates ~15ppm, Nitrite 0, Ph 6.8, and 300ppm GH, using an Aquaclear 20 for filtration. I am concerned about the largest. I woke up this morning to find her* very lethargic and she has now developed a big white spot protruding from her head. I have moved her to a 3gal quarantine tank, but I can't tell if it's a parasite or fungus to know where to start treatment? I am leaning towards parasite since it's sticking out from her head. The other two are totally fine - bright, playful, hungry. *I say she, but I could definitely be wrong. https://imgur.com/gallery/wd5ktRK Rythe posted:When it comes to putting driftwood into a tank how long do you boil it for? I have heard 1-2 hours to sanitize it and on the other hand until the water runs clear. I've tried both and I prefer to boil until clean. The times I haven't, I've noticed white fuzzy moldish patches on the wood which upon googling are not harmful and the shrimp like to eat, but I just don't like the appearance. With larger pieces, I've had good luck using a turkey fryer setup instead of the stove.
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May 20, 2022 21:28
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candystarlight posted:4 days ago I went out and picked up 3 pea puffers for my 10gal. This aquarium houses 4 nerites, 5 cherry shrimp, and now the pea puffers. Nitrates ~15ppm, Nitrite 0, Ph 6.8, and 300ppm GH, using an Aquaclear 20 for filtration. I don't have any advice for you but please give an update in a month or two about this tank. I was thinking of having basically the same setup (except like a billion shrimp instead of 4) but i'm worried the puffers would just annihilate the rest of the tank.
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May 21, 2022 01:27
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Looks like fungus to me. Did my first water change on my starfish tank. My brittle star came out to investigate the siphon then decided gently caress this and noped the gently caress out of the area.
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May 21, 2022 02:12
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The brittle star sounds surprisingly interactive. And on the topic of freshwater, how many shrimp is too many shrimp in a 20 gallon? I got some from Aquatic Arts a while back and they are breeding prolifically. And what do I do with them once I have to many? Offer them up on facebook, I guess.
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May 21, 2022 02:26
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HelloIAmYourHeart posted:The brittle star sounds surprisingly interactive. I once had a heavily planted 3 gallon with close to 50 yellow neo shrimp in it. They are pretty light on bioload, especially with plants.
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May 21, 2022 02:30
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Somehow I never imagined a brittle star would have such personality. My five baby honey gourami all came in silver and two of them are starting to color up all of a sudden and I'm pumped (also pumped that it appears to be two males and three females instead of a bunch of males that will beat each other up). I never really got to see it when they were in the little tank but now that they're in a larger one I've been getting to watch my rainbow fish mating (or at least trying to). The males get all big and flatten out their fins and do a little dance for the ladies. Hoping to get more babies—the original two I spotted are still in there and finally starting to get bigger than a pinky-nail. Not my photo:  candystarlight posted:For example, I have had success cutting down GHA in my 10gal's by running 4 hrs on, 2 hrs off, and 4 hrs on again. In my 125 the Siamese Algae Eater and Amano's do all the hard work for me, but I still run a similar lighting schedule. I do have the lights on a timer but I don't really want to break up the photo period because it's in my office and I like looking at it during the day. It may also be that I need to dial in the nutrients better. Currently the plants are sucking the nitrates out of the water extremely quickly and I've been lazy about dialing in a good fertilization schedule for the epiphytes. I cut back on the total hours on the lights for now and adjusted the distance between them and the tank, though the algae is growing slow enough that I can handle it either way and it's very easy to remove from the plants manually by just wiping the surface with my fingers. I have 20 amanos but they don't seem to be interested, probably because there's tastier poo poo for them to eat. I've considered getting a single siamese algae eater (it's a heavily planted 60 gallon that AqAdvisor puts at 70% stocking so I probably have the capacity) but I'm worried with how big they get that it would eat up any rainbowfish fry that show up  . Anyone know if that's likely?
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May 21, 2022 13:52
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I've got two tiny SAEs in my (heavily planted) 10G now until they put on a bit of size to move them over to the 75G, these guys were easily mouth sized for a bunch of the fish in the big tank. They're making a good effort cleaning things up. The single Caridina longirostris I stuck in there is also doing a decent job at visibly eating algae - but with shrimp there's only so much they'll do. Wish I could find more of those little guys. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 16:22 on May 21, 2022 |
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May 21, 2022 16:20
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candystarlight posted:I've tried both and I prefer to boil until clean. The times I haven't, I've noticed white fuzzy moldish patches on the wood which upon googling are not harmful and the shrimp like to eat, but I just don't like the appearance. With larger pieces, I've had good luck using a turkey fryer setup instead of the stove. Clears up after a week or two on its own.
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May 21, 2022 16:35
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Call Your Grandma posted:I don't have any advice for you but please give an update in a month or two about this tank. I was thinking of having basically the same setup (except like a billion shrimp instead of 4) but i'm worried the puffers would just annihilate the rest of the tank. Will do! Here's what it looks like currently - https://imgur.com/gallery/N1EQOe4 I had the same concern which is why I decided to try only a handful shrimp just in case the puffers wanted to be general menaces. I intentionally selected a berried female to move to see if she kept her eggs and thankfully she has, so I am confident they're not under any undue stress and it'll be reasonable to move more in the future. In regards to the sickly one, I gave one dose of Ich-X and Maracyn last night but unfortunately she passed away. The other two are still doing very well so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm thru the woods on things going wrong now. Boy, are they cute little murder beans though!
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May 22, 2022 00:11
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I have a 29 gallon that is my mom's tank, but houses a mix of bristlenose plecos and a betta. When the betta dies, she's on board for some pea puffers. Probably 10 or so okay in a planted 29?
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May 22, 2022 01:06
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Cowslips Warren posted:I have a 29 gallon that is my mom's tank, but houses a mix of bristlenose plecos and a betta. When the betta dies, she's on board for some pea puffers. Probably 10 or so okay in a planted 29? Funny! I also converted my betta tank to the puffers. The rule of thumb I saw most frequently was 5gal per pea puffer, but that 3 can reliably live in 10 gallons which leads me to believe 10 in a 29g would be perfectly acceptable given the added plant cover.
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May 22, 2022 01:27
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| # ? May 26, 2024 08:45 |
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Alright, 3 month canister cleaning time. Put the net over the sink, let's see what we caught. Looks like about a dozen cherry shrimp, and a couple dozen crays. Back in the tank you go. Interesting to see a control and what "canister 4 lyfe"growth rates are. the shrimp seem to grow normal rate. All the crays though are about the size they were when they were hanging on mom while the ones in the tank are a good 3/4 inch or more. Most scuttled off to hiding places, about 6 were kinda sluggish and are getting gobbled down by the other crays.
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May 22, 2022 19:42
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