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TTBF posted:Hello! I'm a new betta owner and I'm stuck on two things related to feeding. A fish's stomach is usually about the same size as its eye, so feed it that equivalent volume of pellets and it will eat that in one sitting. Multiple smaller feedings are appreciated, but not super necessary. Remember, try not to overfeed. Either the fish eats it all and produces more poop without actually being that much healthier, OR it doesn't eat the food and it just rots in the sediment. quote:2) My fish does not come to the top when I put in food. He also doesn't seem to notice when food is in the tank. He definitely eats it when he eventually sees it, but should I be worried? Whenever I've seen fish owners feed, the fish all eagerly came up to the top. If it's a new fish, don't worry about it too much. Fish don't really have five second memories, they develop learned habits, and if you keep putting food in the same spot at regular times, they'll eventually start to anticipate it. Give it a few weeks and he'll start rushing up to the usual food spot whenever you get close to the tank because they now associate these stimuli with feeding time.
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Aug 7, 2022 17:24
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| # ? May 24, 2024 16:55 |
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Fish absolutely do not have five second memories. Speaking as someone who inadvertently trained a stingray what days feeding days were (and I got water spat on me many times if the schedule was not right) and who did train other fish, sharks and piranha and mudskippers to name a few, when feeding or cleaning time was, fish can remember for a good long time.
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Aug 7, 2022 18:19
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My first week my goldfish were still exploring the pod By week 4 they sort of figured out I was the one bringing them food By week 6 the topminnows started relaxing a bit, they no longer hover on the far side of the pond until I leave anymore, but they still won't come within arm's reach except one or two. Goldfish definitely know they're about to get fed, start zooming around
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Aug 8, 2022 00:23
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Cowslips Warren posted:Fish absolutely do not have five second memories. Speaking as someone who inadvertently trained a stingray what days feeding days were (and I got water spat on me many times if the schedule was not right) and who did train other fish, sharks and piranha and mudskippers to name a few, when feeding or cleaning time was, fish can remember for a good long time. One of the best books I listened to recently was Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal. He's a primate researcher but the book examines intelligence throughout the animal kingdom. The book completely changed my mind about anthropomorphism. They mention in the book that one researcher claims a wrasse passed the dot test. I'm not 100% about that, 100% convinced fish and shrimp are smarter than we give them credit for, especially cleaner shrimp, mantis shrimp, etc..
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Aug 8, 2022 01:10
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So late July or so I picked up some reef stew to seed my marine tank with some copepods and the like. The live brine got eaten by the goby, and I haven't seen anything else, until this weekend. A ton of tiny copepods on the glass, which is awesome. And some other things that might not be. I can't get a good picture because they are loving tiny, but it looks almost like an upside down legged cup pressed to the glass, or a jellyfish polyp of some kind. Aiptasia babies perhaps? Hydriods? All the images I see of those look more messy, these are cup-like with symmetrical 'arms' pressed tot the glass. I haven't added anything else in a month or so. I did see one such white polyp-looking thing break off the glass in a pumping motion before disappearing in the sand. edit: google image would say the form is more like a medusa than a polyp. I really wish I could get a picture. There's about six of them, all clear. The live rock I put in the tank a month ago is covered with feather duster worms but that's all the new poo poo other than the reef stew. Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Aug 8, 2022 |
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Aug 8, 2022 02:50
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Please make sure it’s not Aiptasia, and if it is, take care of it. I had one and thought it was cool so I let it ride and eventually I had to nuke my tank and tear it down entirely.
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Aug 8, 2022 03:43
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:Please make sure it’s not Aiptasia, and if it is, take care of it. I had one and thought it was cool so I let it ride and eventually I had to nuke my tank and tear it down entirely. I hope the gently caress not. I can't find any images of 'newborn' aiptasia. Do they start out as clear little things or more like tiny adults in form? These look like a tiny clear cup pressed to the glass, with about 8-10 nubs along the cup edge. Edit: I used a turkey baster to expel a little water on one, and it has spent the past two or three minutes floating around the tank, clearly using water as some kind of propulsion because it's bouncing all over the place. Even if it gets close to Glass it can't seem to latch on, the little hand nubs that are pressed to the glass when it's against there are what it's using to propel itself around. I did manage to siphon it out and put it in a cup, as soon as there was solid ground against it, it pressed right back to latch itself into position there. Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Aug 8, 2022 |
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Aug 8, 2022 03:49
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Mine were clear and spindly, almost like hydras. I’ll post some pics tomorrow when I’m on my computer.
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Aug 8, 2022 04:12
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:Mine were clear and spindly, almost like hydras. I’ll post some pics tomorrow when I’m on my computer. https://www.reddit.com/r/ReefTank/comments/uvhohr/is_this_a_hydroid_jellyfish/ They look a lot like these guys so I'm thinking they might be hydroid jellyfish? Probably came in on that live rock I got about a month ago, and since I've been feeding the feather dusters every other day or so, that's probably why their population exploded and I'm seeing little jellies now if that's easy what they are. Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Aug 8, 2022 |
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Aug 8, 2022 04:23
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Asterite34 posted:A fish's stomach is usually about the same size as its eye, so feed it that equivalent volume of pellets and it will eat that in one sitting. Multiple smaller feedings are appreciated, but not super necessary. Remember, try not to overfeed. Either the fish eats it all and produces more poop without actually being that much healthier, OR it doesn't eat the food and it just rots in the sediment. Thank you for the responses, the food dosing one helped. The second issue was actually solved today. The flow in the aquarium I bought was too strong, but one of the reviews mentioned a filter I could put over the output that would let water through but kill the strength of the flow. That came in today so I installed it and without the water beating the fish around he's been spending more time up at the top. When I came over with food tonight he was already waiting and swam right for it.
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Aug 8, 2022 06:22
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Cowslips Warren posted:https://www.reddit.com/r/ReefTank/comments/uvhohr/is_this_a_hydroid_jellyfish/ I don't know what they are, but they definitely aren't aiptasia. Looked like some sort of copepod to me. At any rate, you're in the clear for them being something I'd worry about at all.
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Aug 8, 2022 13:13
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I'm leaning towards copepod too, given the swimming motion. A small microscope is a nice tool to have for this kind of thing. They're pricey new, but you can get good deals on a used one
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Aug 8, 2022 16:53
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Classroom grade USB microscopes are suprisingly affordable
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Aug 8, 2022 17:02
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DeadlyMuffin posted:I'm leaning towards copepod too, given the swimming motion. The kind of pumping motion? Is that a copepod thing?
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Aug 9, 2022 02:20
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Cowslips Warren posted:The kind of pumping motion? Is that a copepod thing? The quick jerky swimming motion is something I associate with copepods. Jellyfish aren't jerky, in my experience (scuba not aquarium tho)
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Aug 9, 2022 02:42
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 This is my first ever attempt at proper scapping and I'm in love with it, I love the design in the 40 gallon. All the plants came from a old 25g I had for growing plants and some random fish and my daughters 10g that I let over grow. Now the question is what kind of fish would be good in a habitat like this?  This is what I did with the old 25 g, my best friend gave me the TARDIS decoration for my birthday and I had spare material from the 40 so I took a shot at making a crash scene. I'm pretty happy overall, just need more plants. I'm thinking snails, shrimp and maybe some neon Tetras for this one. Never raised shrimp though, not sure what that entitles.
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Aug 9, 2022 17:04
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Rythe posted:
Glo-tetras/danios will match the sci fi aesthetic of putting a tardis in the middle of your scape Personally I’d try blending the bigger rocks in with your gravel/matching the colors a bit more/taking one or the other out entirely in the 25gal, but also I totally understand that you were kinda cleaning up the leftovers of the bigger scape and maybe you want to keep them somewhat easy to separate/etc. The 40gal looks excellent. If you happen to have any shards or pebbles of dragonstone leftover from the build, sprinkling them on the gravel around the big rocks haphazardly will help add to the cohesion effect and make the scape seem even more natural and like the rock field is coming up through the black “soil”/gravel
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Aug 9, 2022 17:30
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I agree and plan on moving the river stone out of the 25g next time I get a chance to pick up some mountain stone or slate next time I'm at the fish store to blend the colors together. As of right now I don't mind the lighter color rocks as it helps keep everything from being to dark but it will get replaced eventually. Kind of learning this from the ground up but thankfully youtube is wonderful for advice and I appreciate the advice here.
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Aug 9, 2022 18:52
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It really reminded me of the unconvincing sets of earlier Dr Who, or, that one quarry that got used an awful lot to represent an alien planet. I like it a lot better than tanks I've seen with the TARDIS carefully parked! Can't remember if I posted or not but I had kuhlies zooming between my hand and the glass while I was trying to clean the tank the other day and it felt really kind of special that they've gone from being super shy to trusting me that much. Also I think they had the zoomies because they've learned a water change was coming soon.
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Aug 9, 2022 20:02
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Like most of my efforts in esthetic domains, my scaping / plants look rough, haphazard, and messy. I have also learned that if you want things to stay in place, not get shoved around, or dug up, maybe think twice before introducing a mystery snail. I really don't care, so long as it promotes life through plant growth, providing ample hiding places, contributing to a better balanced ecosystem, then great.
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Aug 9, 2022 20:19
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Belatedly changes the thread title Forgive me, folks, it's been a week.
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Aug 12, 2022 20:02
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B33rChiller posted:Like most of my efforts in esthetic domains, my scaping / plants look rough, haphazard, and messy. I have also learned that if you want things to stay in place, not get shoved around, or dug up, maybe think twice before introducing a mystery snail. the good thing about plants is that they tend to look more “normal” and like they belong in a spot as they grow and take over their area
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Aug 12, 2022 20:21
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Ok Comboomer posted:the good thing about plants is that they tend to look more “normal” and like they belong in a spot as they grow and take over their area Yeah, I'm more like "he'll yeah! It's growing, and not just shrivelling away!"
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Aug 13, 2022 02:52
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My sister is moving house and it’s tank moving day! Literally everything else has already been moved, in order to let her work out where everything needed to go and to see what space is left for the tank and cabinet. It’s a 2 foot/15g tank with plants and fish, inbuilt filter and sand substrate and I’m helping her move it. The plan is to bag the fish in shipping bags, bag the plants, drain the tank and keep 2/3 of the water, transport the filter media wet, the tank empty but for substrate, and to give the glass a quick scrape clean before we put it all back together at the other end which is something like a 10 min drive across town. I’m going to take a bit of safe or maybe even a 5g can of clean water because the tank desperately needs a clean and I’m sure disturbing the substrate is going to release muck. Feeling mostly confident about the move. Less confident about the continued survival of the fish since while we were talking, my niece commented to me “I wish these fish would die so I can get some more colourful ones” and then 5 mins after that she described her idea to put the fish in the plastic water can and “shake them to see what happens”. She’s 11, a bit autistic, and honestly so am I so I can’t tell if she was joking so I told her to think about going to jail for animal cruelty. I really should give her the talk that “pets aren’t decorations” too. There is room for 8-10 more small fish in the tank but they don’t have a quarantine tank or anything to make buying new fish a bit safer. I told my niece that if she’s interested in fish I could show her how to look after the tank and then maybe she can pick some new fish but she pretty much just rolled her eyes. She is probably old enough to handle it, but she’s also the kind of kid who murders cats in minecraft because they’ve got the wrong colour/coat pattern so I am not sure how I feel about entrusting her with live animal care. Ah well, not my kid, not my tank, not my problem.
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Aug 14, 2022 02:56
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Don't bother bagging the fish and plants just dump them into 5g buckets full of tank water. It's a lot easier and you can toss the filter media in there too.
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Aug 14, 2022 03:37
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If I had buckets with a lid I’d use them, but my lidded buckets are currently in use and it was just easier to grab some bags off the pile I had left from when I was posting egg mops last year. I’m also hoping to keep the corys separate so they don’t dump venom and kill everyone. If my sister has a bucket we’ll use it though!
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Aug 14, 2022 05:28
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If you have time you can buy some buckets from Lowes/Home Depot with lids that snap on incredibly tight and when you're done you can return them.
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Aug 14, 2022 10:24
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Sorry, wrong country! None of the usual hardware places are open here on a Sunday anyway so we did it without buckets. End result:  Fish survived getting a little cool in transit, and I think overall the tank had about an 80% water change which it desperately needed. The old water was super yellow and it wasn't from tannins. I had the opportunity to scrape the glass clean and pull algae and overgrown susswassertang out of the plants. The plus side of neglecting a planted tank is that the plants grow in *really* well. None of my java ferns ever look as nice as that! And the bolbitis is looking pretty nice too. She's only got 3 sterbai left of the 7 I originally gave her, 2 pristella tetras and 1 glowlight tetra but I think she's going to add more fish soon and there's plenty of room in the tank. The new house had a fairly narrow fridge alcove that really wouldn't fit many modern fridges but was a perfect size for the tank and stand to fit. Hopefully the tank will be easier to care for now that it's in a more accessible area than the old house. I showed the kids how to net fish and they had a good time helping so maybe the tank will see a little more care from them in future too.
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Aug 14, 2022 14:01
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Hello fish people. I'm a new fish person, I have 7 fat and sassy goldfish. They had babies this year which is pretty exciting. Also I fed my goldfish salami as a treat or a snack and they kind of went nuts for it but I imagine it's not good for them??
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Aug 16, 2022 04:17
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Generally animal fats are not good for fish, since they wouldn't have access to it in nature and don't have the capacity to process it in a healthy way in their bodies. Maybe something to do with it being a solid at the normal temperature for fish? Some fussy carnivorous fish are fed beef heart I think specifically because it has lower fat but it's still not good for them, the mix of amino acids is wrong in mammalian meat compared to fish based meat. Goldfish are omnivores so could probably do with a little meaty food every now and then but it should be in a form closer to what they'd have access to in nature - bug bites (tm) or other insect based protein, or shrimp/invert or even freeze dried or fresh worms. It's good to give your fish an appropriate variety of foods. It's also good to not overfeed, to make sure you don't end up with excess nutrients in the water from the fish wastes!
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Aug 16, 2022 07:05
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I have a 10 gallon tank with 7 neon tetras, a 1in mystery snail, a 1/2 in snail from the creek, half a dozen hitchhiker "baby" snails from a plant I bought, and a bunch of plants. We're planning on getting a betta. What would be a good fit for our aquarium for bottom level/cleanup crew/whatever, or are we good with what we have?
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Aug 18, 2022 17:02
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RodShaft posted:I have a 10 gallon tank with 7 neon tetras, a 1in mystery snail, a 1/2 in snail from the creek, half a dozen hitchhiker "baby" snails from a plant I bought, and a bunch of plants. We're planning on getting a betta. What would be a good fit for our aquarium for bottom level/cleanup crew/whatever, or are we good with what we have? You're about to have around 3000 snails and won't need any more cleanup crew.
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Aug 18, 2022 17:19
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I'm trying to make peace with my 3000 snails before they become 27,000 snails
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Aug 18, 2022 17:24
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Seems like you're already at max stocking. Mystery Snails are dirty af. Also start smashing those pond snails before they take over. They crunch real good.
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Aug 18, 2022 17:28
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Squishy squishy crunch crunch. Feels good.
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Aug 18, 2022 17:29
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Speaking of snails, my pea puffer has finally started eating snails! So excited to finally be reducing my assassin snail population!
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Aug 18, 2022 17:50
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My son really likes snails. So even if it's just a tank of snails, he'll be happy. The plan is to get him a tank just for the snails if they get too crazy.
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Aug 18, 2022 18:01
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Snails are awesome and I love them but pond snails are a pest.
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Aug 18, 2022 18:16
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Desert Bus posted:Snails are awesome and I love them but pond snails are a pest.  SAY THAT TO HIS FACE!
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Aug 18, 2022 20:08
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| # ? May 24, 2024 16:55 |
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The last time I had Ramshorn Snails a bigass adult managed to get stuck in the intake on a HOB and I had to drag out about 6" of snail from the tubing and it was honestly one of the worst things I've ever had to do in my life. That creature is a Ramshorn Snail not a Pond Snail, so A-OK by my book, even if that species has previously traumatized me.
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Aug 18, 2022 20:23
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