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I always liked the idea of it, maintaining equilibrium of available CO2 so that instead of the plants using it faster than the surface agitation can replenish it (which I think takes about 4 hours in a well lit tank) there's always some available so plant growth continues all day. And there's no danger of gassing the fish, unless a surface sipping air breather fish tries going into the jar. I had a Sera brand system that was automatically refilled by mini canisters, and of course it kind of leaked or the flow rate wouldn't stay consistent or the suction caps kept letting go. A non leakable jar seems like a much better way of doing it - how are you securing them to the tank?
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Sep 30, 2022 19:27
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Fluval used to have one as well that was refilled with one use paintball cartridges iirc. I haven't seen that kit in a long time though. Likewise, aquarium co-op has done a few videos on a store in I think san fran that uses old gatorade bottles that a person refilled using a hooked hardline tube attached to a regular co2 tank.
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Sep 30, 2022 20:21
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Stoca Zola posted:A non leakable jar seems like a much better way of doing it - how are you securing them to the tank? They're siliconed to a board that sits across the tank. The weight of the board is enough to keep them from flipping everything over. I started with one jar and went to 3 since it was depleting too regularly. JuffoWup posted:Likewise, aquarium co-op has done a few videos on a store in I think san fran that uses old gatorade bottles that a person refilled using a hooked hardline tube attached to a regular co2 tank. Ocean aquarium in SF is where I got the idea! It's amazing in you ever get a chance to visit. I use a tube off a big CO2 tank. Once/day or so is enough. They use old Gatorade or water bottles. I thought it was a super clever way to do it at scale
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Sep 30, 2022 20:42
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So I made it to a local fish store to check out their weekend deals. Plus: they had kuhli loaches! Tons of them! And reticulated hillstream loaches and some loving amazing dragonscale bettas. Minus: there was some heavy bacterial infection in one hillstream loach. I overheard a worker telling a customer that all the tanks get treated with copper. A few dead fish I can excuse, it is a pet store, but seeing red marks on fish is a no sale for me. Plus: they had some healthy marine fish and inverts, and I picked up two pencil urchins and two chocolate chip starfish. Minus: they had one amazingly beautiful but tiny blue brittle star. Not for sale as he had a chunk taken from his body. Plus and minus: I asked about other brittle stars, and the dude showed me a motherfucking green serpent star whose body was at least an inch across and had legs as long as a Barbie doll's. I fell in love with the goddamn murder machine but did not get it. I have seen blue ones online. I must force myself not to get one, even if I have no fish, because I can't see one happy in a 29 gallon. But damnit he was SO COOL.
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Oct 1, 2022 23:44
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Serpa just outdid king of diy at diy. He released a video showing how to make a rimless tank using ikea glass shelves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir4kHioCSM0
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Oct 1, 2022 23:52
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I do DIY CO2 with a stainless cylinder full of baking soda and citric acid and it works fairly well for a nano setup. Easy to refill and economical. I under inject however bc my shrimp tend to be fairly sensitive to higher CO2. Maybe they don’t like the pH drop.
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Oct 2, 2022 00:43
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I tried to rebuild my montipora that broke apart and ended up with more broken coral and super glue on my fingers even though I used gloves. On the positive side, AFAIK my bite crazy clownfish did not end up with their mouths glued shut (I have a giant fear of this happening with fish while I'm mounting coral and frags). I spent drat near the entire day testing water and cleaning tanks and I feel like I got a lot done, the monti notwithstanding. I went back to my LFS to buy a new wrasse but the over the last 3 days they sold all three of the Melanuaruses they had. If I thought there was any danger of that I would've paid for them to hold one, but good for the store at least. I can't believe how crazy expensive yellow tangs are now. I'm assuming the Hawiian collection ban is still going and the captive bred ones just can't meet demand yet.
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Oct 2, 2022 03:10
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So apparently you can order killifish eggs on Amazon, which is.... Fascinating. I guess in the 70s these were sold as "instant fish" as the eggs are designed to sit in moist soil for up to three years before the next big rainstorms come along, which is... Longer than most shipping periods The same company also sells a variety of fry foods, "ready-to-hatch eggs of Daphnia, Artemia, Triops, Fairy shrimp, Rotifers, and Moina" I don't think I have any crustaceans in my pond, so my fish have been supplementing their diet with the roots of the water lettuce. Is it worth getting some crustacean eggs for the pond
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Oct 2, 2022 07:34
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I spent ages yesterday fine tuning my pond waterfall so that it didn't sound like a washing machine filling, I think the end result turned out pretty good even if it doesn't look amazing (yet), the rest of the rocks need to go in before this will look anywhere near decent: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VuoX0hQSuN1VcfGfFUxOLRa9ADwktJAq/view?usp=sharing However! I didn't get a good bead of silicone on left side of the waterfall lip and overnight it leaked a heap of water through a gap about the width of a matchstick. I think trying to use the silicone that came with the kit, which was in like a squeezable tube, made it really hard to get an even amount. I managed to get the old silicone off, cleaned up the surfaces and used a proper silicone gun to get a nice fat bead on and hopefully it will be cured before it rains tomorrow. Definitely need to get decent water movement because mosquito season has started in earnest. Actually I had forgotten, I bought a bacterial larvacide so I'll throw that in the pond too now that I have remembered. My guppy project has pretty much ended in catastrophe, I should have known better than to panic-move my new guppy out of his quarantine/girlfriend tank. He was carrying whatever bug killed all the blonde guppies, and apparently died in my main guppy tank, spreading it to pretty much everyone. Mass rapid die off of guppies, sparing fry which is strange. I netted out all the living guppies, to a bucket, dead guppies to the bin, did a 100% water change then blasted the tank with chemiclean to hopefully cook any residual environmental bacteria. All the remaining adult guppies seem to have died, all the fry seem fine, although they're so small I wouldn't be surprised if I'm just not seeing the dead ones. I'm going to wait and see if the population recovers and if not, it's a good opportunity to empty/clean/move/obtain new stand and completely redo that tank which is something I've wanted to do for years at this point.
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Oct 2, 2022 12:17
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I tried to rebuild my montipora that broke apart and ended up with more broken coral and super glue on my fingers even though I used gloves. On the positive side, AFAIK my bite crazy clownfish did not end up with their mouths glued shut (I have a giant fear of this happening with fish while I'm mounting coral and frags). I spent drat near the entire day testing water and cleaning tanks and I feel like I got a lot done, the monti notwithstanding. As a public service for anyone unaware nail polish remover/acetone will take superglue off your fingers.
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Oct 2, 2022 15:21
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Wallet posted:As a public service for anyone unaware nail polish remover/acetone will take superglue off your fingers. Thanks, I actually did not know that, or more likely probably did know that at some point but forgot. I spent the morning trying to use acrylic rod, my dremel, and a stone bit with my drill to secure the rockwork in my 75g. I think it might be slightly more secure but it was a huge pain in the rear end and I would recommend doing it before setting up a tank. I guess the one plus side to working with wet rock was no dust while drilling but now my tank is super cloudy. Archways look cool, but I am terrified they will tip over, especially with a species that likes to move rocks. I'm saving for a 180g and I will definitely build all my rockwork while the tank is and empty.
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Oct 2, 2022 18:09
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Wallet posted:As a public service for anyone unaware nail polish remover/acetone will take superglue off your fingers. Whaaaat  Literally went by whole life gluing body parts together inadvertently until just now
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Oct 3, 2022 01:30
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Hadlock posted:So apparently you can order killifish eggs on Amazon, which is.... Fascinating. I guess in the 70s these were sold as "instant fish" as the eggs are designed to sit in moist soil for up to three years before the next big rainstorms come along, which is... Longer than most shipping periods I grabbed some plants from the local waterway (Willamette river) and had a thriving population of scuds in my pond in no time at all. Could try that too.
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Oct 3, 2022 22:48
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Hadlock posted:Whaaaat Sorry but this is way too good not to share and it has to du' with the glu' ‘Succession’ actor James Cromwell super-glues himself to Starbucks counter during PETA’s protest for lower cost of vegan milk
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Oct 3, 2022 22:52
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My local PetsMart has a TINY Tiger Oscar that is either missing an eye or has a misformed eye, I couldn't get a good look and I want to buy him/her so bad. E: I absolutely do not have a tank for an Oscar. My only freshwater tank is 55g that has Black Skirt Tetras, Angelfish and a Festivum.
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Oct 4, 2022 15:57
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So during the pandemic I probably watched one too many serpadesign YouTube videos I have some extra water lettuce, and either... Christmas or Willow Moss. Found an old 1 liter Erlenmeyer flask in the kitchen and...    Is... This enough water and plant content to support 2-3 cherry shrimp and ~4 ghost shrimp? I figure if they actually breed I can move extra shrimp to the pond I tried putting an air stone in there but it's way, way too much, like a rapidly boiling pot of water. It's only 1 liter which is about 1/4 gallon. Water changes are easy I just dump some water out in the sink, then bring a cup of water up from the pond after feeding the fish
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Oct 4, 2022 21:54
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Shrimp are pretty low bioload, but I suspect that's too many shrimp for that volume of water.
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Oct 4, 2022 23:28
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Two cherry shrimp? With that amount of moss?
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Oct 5, 2022 00:00
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Just filled up my tank after putting in the substrate and decorations. Going to start cycling soon. I am still very nervous about my tank exploding.
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Oct 5, 2022 02:41
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There's nothing like the panic when you think you're refractometer is not calibrated properly, so you take out your backup one, and that one might not be calibrated properly, and then in the frantic mess of you panicking and not sure what you've tested versus not, you spill water on a power strip and end up hearing the snap, crackle, hiss and smoke from the start of an electrical fire. Tonight has not been a good night for water changes.
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Oct 5, 2022 03:41
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Cowslips Warren posted:There's nothing like the panic when you think you're refractometer is not calibrated properly, so you take out your backup one, and that one might not be calibrated properly, and then in the frantic mess of you panicking and not sure what you've tested versus not, you spill water on a power strip and end up hearing the snap, crackle, hiss and smoke from the start of an electrical fire. I came home after a few days away to a strong ozone smell in the fish room. Turns out my protein skimmer was overflowing, mostly into the tank, but some very small droplets were making it a foot or two to a nearby outlet. Exciting.
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Oct 5, 2022 04:42
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I'm guessing my substrate must have some ammonia in it because I tested the water in the tank without adding anything and I've got 1 ppm. I used an old bag of Caribsea Floramax and it might not even be being made anymore since I looked on their website and I can't seem to find it. Also, what's a good online retailer for plants in the US? Are there any retailers I should avoid?
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Oct 5, 2022 21:19
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Lareine posted:Also, what's a good online retailer for plants in the US? Are there any retailers I should avoid? I got most of mine from Buce (who had by far the best selection of anyone I found) and a few from Aquarium Co-Op. Worth noting if you're one of those people who hate snails that either or both of them sent me plants with at least four types of snail eggs on them so you'd probably want to dip them or something.
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Oct 5, 2022 22:32
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Wallet posted:I got most of mine from Buce (who had by far the best selection of anyone I found) and a few from Aquarium Co-Op. Worth noting if you're one of those people who hate snails that either or both of them sent me plants with at least four types of snail eggs on them so you'd probably want to dip them or something. I'm not in love with snails. I'll take them or leave them but I was planning on doing an alum dip anyway to make sure I don't get planaria since I'm going to start a RCS colony. But yeah, I was leaning towards BucePlant. Aquarium Plants is also a possibility because they carry red myrio but I don't think I can completely trust a company that is named so boringly. I like Aquarium Co-Op's videos but their selection of live plants is rather limited. Update: drat it. Buce is out of pygmy chain sword and that's the ONE I REALLY wanted to get established first. Looks like I'm going to have to go to multiple places. Lareine fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Oct 6, 2022 |
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Oct 5, 2022 23:18
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Hey folks, longtime lurker. Sadly I'm not getting a tank, but I have reason to believe that my tap water is not safe for me (full-on allergic reaction, both on skin and hay fever) and want to narrow down what's going on so I can solve this without moving apartments. Do you have a water-testing kit that you would recommend? Someone I know mentioned it might be chloramine but I figured if anyone knew good water testing kits, it would be people who keep their critters in clean water successfully.
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Oct 6, 2022 21:58
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Chaosfeather posted:Hey folks, longtime lurker. Call your local extension office, they should be able to test it for you free of charge.
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Oct 6, 2022 22:02
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Chloramine allergies are so rare as to just go ahead and rule them out completely at this stage Your city's water department website should specify if they're using chlorine, flourine or chloramine. And yeah your local water people should be able to test the water coming right out of the tap/shower head. Amazon sells a full water testing kit for like $40 if you want to DIY. Allergies to water contaminants are... exceedingly rare I would look to allergens, like you said hay fever, it is peak hay fever season right now, especially on the east coast, a doctor can order you a full up allergy test to find out what the issue is edit: if you're on the east coast, we just had a giant hurricane/weather system that was pulling air from the coast of south america, up to NY/virginia area, and then pulling air from maine down to like northern florida. and then if you're in florida there's a ton of mold happening right now due to flooding. just tons of crap in the air right now that normally wouldn't be here Hadlock fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Oct 6, 2022 |
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Oct 6, 2022 22:17
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Hadlock posted:Chloramine allergies are so rare as to just go ahead and rule them out completely at this stage I appreciate it but I have been having these reactions for literally weeks, so I don't suspect it's a sudden thing of allergies. I'll see if I can contact the water department or Enos Cabell posted:Call your local extension office, they should be able to test it for you free of charge. These folks, thank you. The reaction is literally a hive-like break out on the skin with red swelling, hay fever symptoms and they progress the longer I am in the shower or bath, hot or cold water. Washing my hands for a long enough time my skin starts to react. Reporting this to the apt. complex I got a snide answer of "we don't control the water". Thanks for the help goons, I'll call tomorrow.
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Oct 6, 2022 23:56
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Definitely call your local place. It is very possible they upped their chlorine dosage for the winter recently and you might be more sensitive to it. For us in the fish hobby, we have to be aware of it as well. When they change, a chloramine/chlorine filter unit will not last as long as previous in a ro/di system for example.
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Oct 7, 2022 00:40
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How active are pencil urchins and choco chip stars? The latter explore the tank a bit but otherwise don't seem super active, and one urchin hasn't moved from its hidey place under some rock save to poke poo poo with its spines. They did all eat yesterday and I've seen the urchins poop, but I don't see them actively exploring the tank.
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Oct 7, 2022 02:02
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Actually screwed around with the water chemistry yesterday. Added Equilibrium, Acid Buffer and Alkaline Buffer. I tested it today after I let it sit overnight and even though I followed the ratio on the bottle of the buffers, my water ended up being way alkaline. So I put another tsp of Acid Buffer in. I'm not going for anything nuts, just close to 7 would be nice. Also made absolutely sure that the ammonia wasn't in the RO water because we would have a BIG problem if that were the case. I also tossed a little sock of old fish food in. Trying to get the ammonia up to 2 ppm because I read that is the optimal amount of ammonia to cycle with. In other news, Amazon still hasn't even attempted to ship my Plant 3.0. It's been like two weeks. Not thrilled with them as of late. I bought a small nano air pump for funsies and they sent me a return with the nano pump swapped out for a larger, cheaper pump. It fills me with confidence that Amazon doesn't check their returned merchandise before selling them as new.
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Oct 7, 2022 05:14
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Lareine posted:In other news, Amazon still hasn't even attempted to ship my Plant 3.0. It's been like two weeks. Not thrilled with them as of late. I bought a small nano air pump for funsies and they sent me a return with the nano pump swapped out for a larger, cheaper pump. It fills me with confidence that Amazon doesn't check their returned merchandise before selling them as new. If Amazon is still loving you I really like the Aquarium Co-Op air pumps, both the little nano one and the larger one that has a built in battery backup to keep your fishies breathin' if the power is out. Also I think they carry the same light and they'll probably actually ship it to you.
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Oct 7, 2022 13:57
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Wallet posted:If Amazon is still loving you I really like the Aquarium Co-Op air pumps, both the little nano one and the larger one that has a built in battery backup to keep your fishies breathin' if the power is out. Also I think they carry the same light and they'll probably actually ship it to you. Aquarium Co-Op is good, I picked up both my Plant 3.0s from them.
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Oct 7, 2022 14:16
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I made my first online coral order and they showed up yesterday. WWC had some frags on sale I wanted and they are doing a hurricane relief sale so I figured why not. They really pack things well. I’m super pleased, will post some pictures later.
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Oct 7, 2022 19:18
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Sadly, I'm relying on Amazon points to fund a good portion of the cost of the light. Otherwise, I would've taken my business elsewhere. The worst thing is that it's Amazon so they make it difficult to yell at them to actually ship the drat thing. Is it not actually in stock? I have no clue. It really throws a wrench in works since I have picked out all the plants I want to get but it wouldn't be smart to order plants if I don't have a light, now would it?
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Oct 7, 2022 22:27
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I'm a newbie that's been messing around with my 5.5 gallon tank with a single Betta for a while. It is pretty well established. Just bought a used 20 gallon tank in hopes of staring to slowly build it up. I need a heater that can keep it at probably 75+ degrees F when the ambient temp is as low as 60 degrees. There are a bunch of different heaters but is there one this thread recommends?
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Oct 8, 2022 08:04
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Manta posted:I'm a newbie that's been messing around with my 5.5 gallon tank with a single Betta for a while. It is pretty well established. I haven't tried many heater types but I use a Fluval. You're going to want to have either a 150 or 200 watt. Some people recommend getting two 100 watt heaters and putting them on opposite ends of the tank so if/when one fails, it doesn't murder your fish so hard.
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Oct 8, 2022 08:38
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So this summer my goldfish had babies for the first time, they didn't have any last year but they were probably only 6 months old when I got them. They had... a lot of babies. They're all well over an inch long now and fully hanging out with the adults now. A month ago one of the babies turned gold and we thought the others would be soon behind. It's not even the biggest/oldest baby, just an early bloomer. It's been almost 3 months now and all the other babies from the same eggs and parents are still dark brown. Many are bigger and fatter than the "tiger baby" as we call it, but no one is showing any signs of changing colour. Is this one baby just a super early bloomer or what's going on? How long do bog standard goldfish take to turn colour?
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Oct 8, 2022 19:29
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When you set up a new aquarium and get everything planted then the next morning immediately regret the whole 'scape and want to redo everything. Ugh.
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Oct 9, 2022 17:30
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I am trying to set up a new aquarium but there must have been some mistake because all I've got so far is a giant sucking vortex where my wallet used to be. I've spent $NaN so far and I haven't even got to the point where I can spend way too much on moss and shrimp, let alone fish 
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Oct 9, 2022 21:58
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